IADR Abstract Archives
Perceived Sources of Stress Among Asian Oral Health Therapy Students.
Objectives: This cross-sectional study identified the perceived sources of stress among Asian Oral Health Therapy (OHT) students and compared the stress levels between gender and year-of-study for the different stressor domains.
Methods: First-to-third year students, aged 17 to 33 years, from the Oral Health Therapy Diploma programme of a local polytechnic were invited to participate in the study. Perceived sources of stress were assessed with the Dental Environment Stress (DES) questionnaire. Demographic information and DES responses were acquired with an electronic data capture system (CDRSS). Data were subsequently analysed using independent samples T-test and One-Way ANOVA/Tukey’s post-hoc test with the significance level set at 0.05.
Results: A response rate of 98.48% was attained and data from a total of 65 students were collated and examined. The study sample consisted of 11 males (16.9%) and 54 females (83.1%) with a mean age 19.2±2.89 years. Ranking of mean domain scores were as follows: academic factors (3.07±0.52) > clinical factors (2.89±0.53) > personal factor (2.37±0.61) > educational environment (2.23±0.58) > living accommodation (1.34±1.15). No significant differences in stressor domain scores were observed between the two genders and the three years-of-study.
Conclusions: Asian OHT students were more affected by academics than non- academic stressors. Overall stress levels (2.38±0.53) were slightly elevated but comparable to those of Asian and other dental students.
Methods: First-to-third year students, aged 17 to 33 years, from the Oral Health Therapy Diploma programme of a local polytechnic were invited to participate in the study. Perceived sources of stress were assessed with the Dental Environment Stress (DES) questionnaire. Demographic information and DES responses were acquired with an electronic data capture system (CDRSS). Data were subsequently analysed using independent samples T-test and One-Way ANOVA/Tukey’s post-hoc test with the significance level set at 0.05.
Results: A response rate of 98.48% was attained and data from a total of 65 students were collated and examined. The study sample consisted of 11 males (16.9%) and 54 females (83.1%) with a mean age 19.2±2.89 years. Ranking of mean domain scores were as follows: academic factors (3.07±0.52) > clinical factors (2.89±0.53) > personal factor (2.37±0.61) > educational environment (2.23±0.58) > living accommodation (1.34±1.15). No significant differences in stressor domain scores were observed between the two genders and the three years-of-study.
Conclusions: Asian OHT students were more affected by academics than non- academic stressors. Overall stress levels (2.38±0.53) were slightly elevated but comparable to those of Asian and other dental students.