Knowledge and practices of blood pressure measurement among final year students, house officers, and resident dental surgeons in a dental hospital, South West Nigeria

Objectives: To assess the knowledge and practices of blood pressure measurement (BPM) among final year students, house officers, and resident dental surgeons. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study consisting of a convenience sample of all final year students, house officers, and resident dental surgeons in a dental hospital in South West Nigeria was conducted. All participants were requested to complete a 16-item questionnaire about their knowledge of accurate BPM. After completing the questionnaire, the participants were observed by a single research associate as they measured the blood pressure (BP) of patients using a checklist prepared according to the World Health Organization and the American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines for measuring BP. The performance score was based on a 25-element skillset on BP measurement. Data were entered into Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 22. Frequencies and means were generated and independent Student's t-tests and Pearson's Chi-square tests were used to test the association between continuous and categorical variables, respectively at P value < 0.05. Results: In total, 139 questionnaires were returned by 59 final year dental nursing students, 29 final year dental students, 14 house officers, 18 registrars, and 19 senior registrars. Overall, 46.0% of the participants had poor knowledge of accurate BPM. The mean [standard deviation (SD)] BPM knowledge score was 5.8 (2.0), dental nursing students had the least 4.8 (1.5) score, and dental students had the highest 6.9 (2.0) score (P < 0.0001). Overall, the mean (SD) BPM knowledge scores for students and dentists were 5.5 (1.9) and 6.4 (1.9), respectively (P = 0.01). One-hundred and thirty-seven (98.6%) participants performed BPM inaccurately. There was a weak positive non-statistically significant correlation between knowledge and performance scores (r = 0.03; P = 0.75). Conclusions: Overall, 46.0% of participants had poor knowledge of accurate BPM while 98.6% performed BPM inadequately. These findings suggest the need for curriculum review on accurate BPM.