Journal of Disability and Oral Health

cover art

Cover Date:
August 2007
Print ISSN:
1470-8558
Electronic ISSN:
1754-2758
Vol:
8
Issue:
2

The value of training doctors in the diagnosis of oral manifestations of HIV

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of a training intervention on doctors’ diagnoses of oral manifestations of HIV infection in an outpatient medical clinic in rural Uganda. Methods: Didactic teaching, seminars and calibration with participants were given to doctors by dental students. After the intervention, doctors’ and dental students’ diagnoses were compared against participants’ HIV status in the same 79 patients. Then, for three months doctors’ diagnoses only were compared against participants’ HIV status. Outcome measures: Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), positive predictive value (PPV) and likelihood ratios (LR) using HIV status as gold standard. Results: Immediately after the intervention, agreement between doctors’ and dental students’ diagnoses was 0.71 (k) for the same 79 participants (44 HIV positive): Over the next three months, the doctors did not diagnose any further lesions in a sample of 259 participants, (111 were HIV positive) (sensitivity, PPV and LR all fell to 0). This reduction in sensitivity was significant (p<0.001) (Fisher’s exact test). Conclusions: Doctors can be trained in the diagnosis of oral manifestations of HIV infection but diagnostic validity decreases with time from training. Further and sustained increases in diagnostic validity may be possible with increased or more effective training and if oral diagnosis forms an integral part of participants’ health care, rather than part of a research project.

Article Price
£15.00
Institution Article Price
£15.00
Page Start
81
Page End
85
Authors
Peter G. Robinson, C J Young, L Van der Paal, J O Mugisha, B N Mayanja, C R Vernazza

Articles from this issue

  • Title
  • Pg. Start
  • Pg. End

  1. Editorial - Pushing Boundaries
  2. 50
  3. 50

  1. Referral patterns and access to dental services of people affected by homelessness in Dublin, Ireland
  2. 51
  3. 56

  1. An audit of patient assessment and treatment outcomes in anxious patients referred for conscious sedation
  2. 57
  3. 62

  1. Barriers to oral health care access among socially vulnerable groups: a qualitative study
  2. 63
  3. 69

  1. Descriptive study of factors modifying the periodontal status of a population of people with a learning disability in Spain
  2. 73
  3. 80

  1. The value of training doctors in the diagnosis of oral manifestations of HIV
  2. 81
  3. 85

  1. Student evaluation of clinical outreach teaching in Community Special Care Dentistry
  2. 86
  3. 90

  1. Preaxial acrofacial dysostosis (Nager syndrome): a case report
  2. 91
  3. 94

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