Does participation in an undergraduate journal club make dental students more knowledgeable and confident in practising evidence-based dentistry?

Aim: To establish whether participation in an undergraduate journal club makes dental students more knowledgeable and confident in practising evidence-based dentistry. Methods: 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 and Confidence Evaluation) questionnaire was administered at baseline, with a follow-up after a year. Results: 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. Discussion: 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