Correlates of dental student stress

Health-related impediments to learning among dental and oral surgery students

Dental education is a challenging experience that places significant demands on students' intellectual, financial, and psychosocial well-being. Dental students who simultaneously experience physical illness, emotional upset, or interpersonal difficulty may be at greater risk of experiencing negative academic consequences. It is well documented that stress affects student learning, however, the impact of other health concerns on academic success is less understood. The purpose of this manuscript is to document the prevalence and perceived academic impact of 24 health concerns on the academic performance of a sample of 130 undergraduate dental students as measured by the National College Health Assessment (NCHA). Health concerns that were most prevalent among dental students were generally also perceived to be most detrimental to their learning. These included upper respiratory infections (cold, flu, sore throat), interpersonal concerns (concerns about a troubled friend or family member, and relationship difficulty), and mental health issues (depression/anxiety/seasonal affective disorder, and stress).

Health professions' students have an alarming prevalence of depressive symptoms: exploration of the associated factors

BACKGROUND

There is a need to better understand the depression phenomenon and to clarify why some students become depressed and others don't. The purpose of this study was to compare the prevalence of depressive symptoms among health professions' (HP) students, and to explore the association between socio-demographic factors (e.g. year of study, discipline, gender) and depressive symptoms.

METHODS

In this descriptive-analytic, cross-sectional study, stratified proportionate sampling strategy was used to select the study sample during the academic year 2012-2013. The students from four health professions' schools situated within a large, public university located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were screened for depressive symptoms using the 21-item Beck Depression Inventory (BDI II). Chi-square test, student t-test and ANOVA were used to compare different categorical variables.

RESULTS

The overall response rate was 79.0 %, the highest among dental students 86.1 %, and lowest among nursing (49.7 %). The overall prevalence rate of depressive symptoms was 47.0 %; it was highest among dentistry students (51.6 %), followed by medicine (46.2 %), applied medical sciences (AMS) (45.7 %) and lowest among nursing students (44.2 %). A statistically significant association was found between the presence and severity of depressive symptoms on one hand and the female gender (p = 0.000) and year of study on the other hand.

CONCLUSION

This study seems to indicate an alarming rate of depressive symptoms. Female gender, dentistry, the third year for all schools and fifth year for medicine and dentistry have the highest association with depressive symptoms. Future studies may be needed to explore further the reasons and explanations for the variation in the prevalence of depressive symptoms among these groups. The factors that deserve exploration include curricular variables and personal factors such as the students' study skills.

Perceived musculoskeletal symptoms among dental students in the clinic work environment

Musculoskeletal symptoms are a major concern among dental practitioners. Dental students perform the same clinical tasks as dentists in private practice, yet only recently has scientific evidence suggested a relationship between the tasks and musculoskeletal symptoms. This study investigates the clinical tasks that place students at physical risk and the relationship between the tasks and musculoskeletal symptoms. Student perceptions of physical symptoms were established with a questionnaire identifying variables on general health, tasks, physical demands, workload and environment. A total of 61% (358/590) reported that during the past year they experienced musculoskeletal symptoms related to work at dental school (second year (n = 212), third year (n = 201) and fourth year (n = 177)). Of those students, the neck represented 48%, shoulder 31%, back 44% and hands 20% (p < 0.001). Third year students reported the highest occurrence of symptoms in every body area (p < 0.001). Third and fourth year students reported significant relationships between the occurrence of symptoms and equipment utilisation, work efficiency and general health. Further studies are recommended to evaluate types and levels of potential risk factors. A total of 75% of dental practitioners are at risk for developing work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Results from this study have found that dental students were no exception. Third year dental students reported the highest level of musculoskeletal symptoms with the prevalence of pain in the neck, shoulder and lower back.

An international review of tobacco smoking among dental students in 19 countries

This study was conducted as a systematic review of all modern literature describing the prevalence of tobacco smoking among dental students. An electronic keyword search of appropriate terms was initially undertaken to identify relevant material, after which the reference lists of manuscripts were also examined to locate additional publications. A total of 27 studies from 19 countries were identified. The earliest manuscripts appeared in 1970, with the most recent being published in 2006. From a global perspective, our review suggests that tobacco smoking is relatively uncommon among contemporary dental students in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Great Britain and the United States. This is not surprising however, as it has previously been noted that dentists generally smoke at one of the lowest rates among all health professionals, and much lower than that of the communities in which they live. Somewhat discouragingly, we did find that smoking remains quite common among dental students in countries such as Greece, Serbia, Romania and Hungary. Given the fact that some of the student body continue to smoke tobacco, it is clear that more aggressive tobacco-specific measures should become a mandatory component of global dental education in future years.

Perceived sources of stress in Nigerian dental students

The objective of this study was to identify sources of stress among dental students at the University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria. A modified Dental Environment Stress (DES) questionnaire was used to study the 137 students in years 3-6, of which 105 (76.6%) responded. Results show that the year 5 students indicated the highest level of stress overall on items relating to pre-clinical training with 21 (70%) recording aggregate DES score over the cut-off point for high stress. For clinical items, nearly all the students - 27(90%) of year 5 and 24 (100%) of year 6 recorded aggregates over the cut-off point. The most important stressors were those related to the lack of provision of a well-supported system of dental education in Nigeria in terms of availability of materials for clinical training and study materials. There were no significant differences in stress perception between genders. However, students who chose Medicine as their first choice for admission with Dentistry as an alternative experienced significantly higher overall mean and higher mean scores for most items. In conclusion, it appears there is a need to improve support for dental education in Nigeria.

Physical and psychosocial stress exposures in US dental schools: the need for expanded ergonomics training

Dental students train in an environment similar to dentists in private practice. The literature reveals that physical and psychosocial stressors in dental schools are associated with adverse health outcomes. While dental educators have provided resources to address psychosocial factors and ergonomics training at the didactic level, the reinforcement of biomechanics at the clinic level has been overlooked. In this article the authors introduce a descriptive analysis of an ergonomics awareness program that expands the ergonomic training by including an assessment of the physical work performed by dental students in the clinic environment.