ASSESMENT OF STRESSORS AMONG UNDERGRADUATE DENTAL STUDENTS OF KARACHI,PAKISTAN

Objectives: 1.To identify the sources of stress among undergraduate dental students of Karachi.
2.To Investigate whether specific stressors were related to gender or year of study and whether parents contributed to level of stress for students.
3.To Evaluate factors influenced by students perception that may lead to programmatic change.
Methods: It was a cross sectional survey in which modified form of DES (Dental Environment stress) questionnaire, with five points Lickerts scale was administered to five dental universities of karachi from 2nd to final year BDS.The questionnaire was distributed among 500 dental students. Means and standard deviation was determined for each item separately and Students one way ANOVA test was used to analyse the data.
Results: Of 500,350 students (60% female and 40% male responded). The level of stress was highest among final year students relating to clinical practise. In camparision of gender , females suffered more stress than male. Students living in hostel were reported to have high stress level and parent's decision of career, frequent examination and reduced holidays also contributed to stress level among undergraduate dental students.
Conclusions: The study indictes that stress free environment need to be created for students.The cirricula needs to be revised and parents need to be counselled against forcing students to join a programme not of their choice.