INFORMED CONSENT;

A SURVEY OF KNOWLEDGE, AND PRACTICE OF INFORMED CONSENT AMONG DENTAL PRACTITIONERS IN HYDERABAD CITY PAKISTAN.

Abstract

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge and
practice of informed consent among dental practitioners in Hyderabad city, Pakistan. Study
Design: Descriptive cross sectional survey. Setting: Liaquat University of Medical and Health
Sciences, Isra University and Dental practitioners working at private Dental clinics in Hyderabad
city. Period: This study was conducted over period of six months from November 2015 to
April 2016. Material and Method: This study used self-administered structured questionnaire,
consist of ten questions to assess the knowledge and practice of dental practitioners towards
informed consent. Data was collected by visiting offices of the study participants at their work
place or through email and courier with prepaid envelope where needed. The participants were
sent two reminders at the interval of fifteen days to return the filled survey form. The responses
were represented in form of percentages. The t-test was used to determine the association
between the knowledge and qualification, clinical experience, and age. A significance level of
p<0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Our response rate was 86% (103).
Majority of the dentist merely knows the meaning of informed consent and overall had poor
knowledge (mean score 7.84 + 2.44). The analysis showed that years of clinical practice and
qualification was statistically significant with mean knowledge score (p < 0.01). The verbal form
of consent was most preferred method of obtaining informed consent that accounted for 82%
of study participants. 89% of dentist obtained informed consent from parents when treating
their children. Conclusions: From this study, it can be concluded that vast majority of dentist
are unaware of informed consent process and their basic requirement. Although majority of
dentist believe that informed consent play an important role in routine dental practice yet many
of them did not use written form of informed consent. Our results would help the educators
and policy makers to develop educational instruction on bioethics with special emphasis on
informed consent.