Does participation in an undergraduate journal club make dental students more knowledgeable and confident in...

To establish whether participation in an undergraduate journal club makes dental students more knowledgeable and confident in practising evidence-based dentistry.

The first journal club session was held in December 2013, with the sessions held monthly during term-time subsequently. All students attending the first session were invited to participate in the study. The KACE (evidence-based practice Knowledge, Attitudes, access & Confidence Evaluation) questionnaire was administered at baseline, with a follow-up after a year.

Thirty-eight students completed the baseline questionnaire, and 37 students completed the follow-up questionnaire. Mean knowledge score increased from 3.87 to 5.18 (P = 0.00008), access score from 23.97 to 25.66 (P = 0.015) and confidence score from 14.97 to 16.84 (P = 0.003). No linear relationships were detected with any score, either for journal club sessions attended, podcasts listened to, PowerPoints viewed or articles read.

Our study showed significant increases in knowledge, access and confidence scores, suggesting our journal club was an effective format. Despite the provision of food and drink, only a small proportion of the entire BDS cohort attended the sessions, limiting the generalisability of the study. Our study aims to lay foundations for more thorough methodology in future research.