Prevalence of Stress and Coping Disorders among Dental Students: An Original Research.

Introduction: The students pursuing professional studies such as medicine and dentistry have to endure a lot of stress. Hence, we evaluated the prevalence of stress and coping disorders among dental students.
Methods: We conducted a questionnaire-based online survey study among 100 dental students of 1-4 years. The survey was based on the "modified General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12; Goldberg and Williams, 1988)." The scores were analyzed for the statistical connotation, keeping P < 0.05 as significant.
Results: We observed that over half of the dental pupils felt stressed. The dental students resorted to "Destructive coping mechanisms." Less than 15% of students sought medical and psychiatric counseling. The mean GHQ was 12 ± 1.7. Conclusions: Psychological strength is a prerequisite for good health and better performance in the studies as well as for the practice. There is an urgent need to focus on the mental health of the students specifically in the medical and dental fields. Copyright:

INTRODUCTION

The students pursuing professional studies such as medicine and dentistry have to endure a lot of stress. Previous studies have evaluated the stress levels among these professions. These studies have concluded an alarmingly high level of stress among practicing dentists. In the studies of Ayers et al.[1] and Dowell et al.,[2] they have found that over a third of their subjects suffered from stress or related disorders. The cause of the stress among the dentist may be multifactorial like maintaining a steady flow of patients and income, demands of the patient, etc. The stress was also seen among the students pursuing these professions.[3] There are few studies done to check the prevalence of these psychological disorders among pupils. However, these were appraised by the “Dental Environment Stress questionnaire (Garbee 1980).”[4] This method of evaluation had certain drawbacks. Hence, we evaluated the prevalence of stress and coping disorders among dental students.

METHODS

We conducted an online questionnaire-based survey study among 100 dental students of I-IV years. The survey was based on the “modified General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12; Goldberg and Williams, 1988).” The institutional ethics clearance was obtained for the study. The questionnaire was in the Google form that constituted 75 questions, which were sent via the online platforms. The Google form included questions that enquired the “stress; sources of stress, anxiety, anger and sadness, and coping mechanisms.” The responses were noted as “”Better than usual” (scoring 0), “Same as usual” (1), “Less than usual” (2) or “Much less than usual” and (3).” Then, they were calculated and presented as GHQ-12 scores.

RESULTS

We observed that among the participants majority were women. The mean age was 21 ± 1.2 years. Majority were from middle-class income groups [Table 1]. When the “stress and coping, personal expectations and competition” was assessed we observed that almost all the participants enjoyed the profession; however, there was an increased stress in almost 80% of the students and were unable to cope with the stress. Other related responses are depicted in Table 2. When the “stress, anxiety, anger or sadness, and related behaviors” were assessed, we observed that “Resting, talking with people who care, social interactions and hobbies” were coping methods among the majority. All the students had trouble sleeping. Only less than a tenth of the participants sought for the medical help. Other responses are shown in Tables 3 and 4. When the “mean GHQ-12” was calculated from the above responses, we observed 12 ± 1.7. This score was twice among those who constantly felt stressed.

Table 1

Comparison of the demographics

Variable	Percentage
Gender
Male	23
Female	67
Age	21±1.2
Economic status (lakh/annum)
Poor (<6)	12
Middle (6-12)	78
Rich (>12)	10

Table 2

Percentage of the pupils responses for “stress and coping, personal expectations, and competition”

Table 3

Responses to the “stress, anxiety, anger or sadness, and related behaviors” among the students

Table 4

Method of coping among the pupils

DISCUSSION

In our study, we observed that the dental profession is extremely stressful during the study period. The stressors among the students were chiefly due to their expectations and professional stress.[345] Many suffered from psychological disturbances like the lack of sleep. The students were guided to practice a healthier lifestyle in developed countries. Such practices are seldom seen in our country. The findings of our study are comparable to other studies.[45678] However, only dental students were evaluated by the GHQ-12 in our study. The mean observed was 12 ± 1.7. In the other studies among the medical students, they coped well with the stress. However, the dental students were poor with the coping and resorted to “Destructive coping mechanisms.”[18] Very few preferred to go to the psychiatrist in spite of the great stress. Psychological counseling is considered taboo still in many countries, including India. This reluctance may ultimately negatively impact the student.[78] There were few limitations in the study. The students were not classified by the study year. The calculation of the Likert scale may have inherent flaws for the negative questions.

CONCLUSIONS

Psychological strength is a prerequisite for good health and better performance in the studies as well as for the practice. There is an urgent need to focus on the mental health of the students specifically in the dental fields.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.