IADR Abstract Archives
Depression, Anxiety and Stress (DAS) in Dental Students
Objectives: To determine the extent of DAS by study year
To compare the extent of DAS by gender.
To determine the levels of DAS in different clinics.
To determine the cause of DAS
To determine how many students have sought medical/professional help for DAS
Methods: After obtaining Ethics approval, a cross-sectional, descriptive study of 267 undergraduate dental students in their 3rd, 4th and 5th year of dentistry at the University of the Western Cape was conducted in 2020. The DASS-21 questionnaire was administered via a Google document survey that was shared via the respective class WhatsApp groups. The data was entered into an Excel spreadsheet and analyzed.
Results: Of the 264 students, 124 (47%) responded, 71 students were female and 53 were male.
Of these students, 82.3% were satisfied with their peer relationships while only 54.8% were satisfied with their faculty relationships (supervisors/lecturers), but the latter increased from 3rd to 5th year.
Depression affected 74.2% of the students, anxiety affected 83,9% and stress affected 72.6% of the students. Furthermore, more than 50% of the students suffered from moderate or higher levels of DAS.
The prevalence of DAS was higher in females than males, but these differences were not statistically significant, but 91.6% of females and 69.8% of males thought that they had DAS (RR=3.57, p=0.002).
The main causes of DAS were tests and exams followed by clinical work, home life and preclinical work.
It was also found that in all years of study, prosthetics was the clinic that students perceived to be the main cause of DAS.
Only 20.2% of students have sought help for depression, anxiety and/or stress, while 82.26% of students thought that they had depression, anxiety and or stress.
Conclusions: Depression, anxiety and stress are very common among dental students, but few students are willing to get help. More attention should be devoted to susceptible students, particularly females as well as the 3rd year class.
To compare the extent of DAS by gender.
To determine the levels of DAS in different clinics.
To determine the cause of DAS
To determine how many students have sought medical/professional help for DAS
Methods: After obtaining Ethics approval, a cross-sectional, descriptive study of 267 undergraduate dental students in their 3rd, 4th and 5th year of dentistry at the University of the Western Cape was conducted in 2020. The DASS-21 questionnaire was administered via a Google document survey that was shared via the respective class WhatsApp groups. The data was entered into an Excel spreadsheet and analyzed.
Results: Of the 264 students, 124 (47%) responded, 71 students were female and 53 were male.
Of these students, 82.3% were satisfied with their peer relationships while only 54.8% were satisfied with their faculty relationships (supervisors/lecturers), but the latter increased from 3rd to 5th year.
Depression affected 74.2% of the students, anxiety affected 83,9% and stress affected 72.6% of the students. Furthermore, more than 50% of the students suffered from moderate or higher levels of DAS.
The prevalence of DAS was higher in females than males, but these differences were not statistically significant, but 91.6% of females and 69.8% of males thought that they had DAS (RR=3.57, p=0.002).
The main causes of DAS were tests and exams followed by clinical work, home life and preclinical work.
It was also found that in all years of study, prosthetics was the clinic that students perceived to be the main cause of DAS.
Only 20.2% of students have sought help for depression, anxiety and/or stress, while 82.26% of students thought that they had depression, anxiety and or stress.
Conclusions: Depression, anxiety and stress are very common among dental students, but few students are willing to get help. More attention should be devoted to susceptible students, particularly females as well as the 3rd year class.