Revista de Higiene e Saúde Oral

Abstrato

Attitudes towards Treating Individuals with Disabilities: A Survey of Dental Hygiene Students and Dental Hygiene Faculty

Susan S Parker and Jennifer KL Hew

The transactual research study’s purpose is to assess the attitudes of student dental hygienists and their faculty utilizing the Lee and Solis “Dental Students’ Attitudes towards the Handicapped Scale” (DSATHS), as described in Stoltenberg and Walker. An email was sent to student dental hygienists and their faculty (who are registered dental hygienists) at four Louisiana dental hygiene programs using Survey Monkey. The hygiene chair had been contacted prior to sending out the survey questions for consensual agreement to be contacted. A total of 65 respondents of the 158 that were mailed completed and sent the survey back. Data was categorized by frequency distributions. Student data showed positive feelings towards treating people with disabilities. Faculty showed similar positive responses to this survey. The authors work in Special Olympics-Special Smiles programs and they were very happy with the positive information provided by this survey.