Dental students' attitudes toward homeless people while providing oral health care

Homeless people have multiple barriers in accessing health care services, and health care providers' negative attitudes toward homeless people have been suggested as part of the problem. Studies on dental students' attitudes toward homeless people are lacking, so our aim was to understand dental students' attitudes. Dental students under the supervision of faculty members spent one day per week for seven weeks at the University of Southern California Union Rescue Mission Dental Clinic providing comprehensive dental services to homeless patients. Students completed the attitudes towards the homeless questionnaire (ATHQ) before and after the rotation with an experience evaluation questionnaire at the end. Data were collected over two years. A total of 242 students completed the questionnaires. The score on the ATHQ after rotation increased slightly but statistically significantly (70.36 pretest/71.38 posttest, P=0.01). Students' age, gender, and prior contact with the homeless population were not related to their attitudes toward homeless patients. Eighty-five percent agreed that the rotation made them feel more comfortable treating homeless patients, and 98 percent agreed that the patients made their experience enjoyable. Results suggest that dental students had positive attitudes toward the homeless and their scores on the ATHQ improved slightly after providing care.