3 | RESULTS
A total of 100 physicians practicing in Tehran participated in this study including 25 orthopedists, 25 oncologists, 25 rheumatologists and 25 endocrinologists. There were 36 females and 63 males in the study; the gender of one participant was not specified. Table 1 summarizes the responses of physicians. Each correct answer was given a score of 1 while each incorrect answer was allocated a 0 score. Accordingly, the mean knowledge score of physicians was found to be 5.19±1.78 (range 2-8).
Table 2 shows the frequency of each score acquired by the physicians. According to one-way ANOVA, a significant difference existed in the knowledge score of different specialty groups (P=0.05). Thus, pairwise comparisons were carried out using the Tukey’s test, which revealed a significant difference between endocrinologists and oncologists regarding their knowledge level about dental considerations in patients taking bisphosphonates (P=0.03). However, the difference between orthopedists and rheumatologists (P=0.88), orthopedists and endocrinologists (P=0.33), oncologists and rheumatologists (P=0.29), and rheumatologists and endocrinologists (P=0.76) was not significant. Table 3 shows the measures of central dispersion of the knowledge score of different specialty groups.
According to the results of the regression test (Table 4), parameters such as the work experience (P=0.04), age (P=0.02), orthopedics specialty (P=0.04) and oncology specialty (P=0.006) had significant effects on the knowledge score. However, the type of practice (private or public sector) (P=0.75), gender (P=0.32), and rheumatology specialty (P=0.07) had no significant effect on the knowledge score.