Association of Depression, Anxiety and Stress with Cognitive functions in female dental students

Abstract

Background: Professional courses in medical education are highly stressful and students must be aware of the stress and the coping methods in the beginning of the course itself. Excessive, ill managed stress leads to depression and further suicidal tendency. Student suicides have become common news in today's era. It was reported that depression, anxiety and stress has negative impact on cognition. If the student has higher levels of stress, his academic performance decreases. This leads to increase in the stress further. Objective: The present study was undertaken to observe the association of depression, anxiety and stress with cognitive functions in female dental students. Methodology: A total of 34 female students studying second year BDS were included in the study after obtaining the written informed consent. Depression, anxiety and stress were assessed by using DASS 21 questionnaire. Cognitive functions were assessed by using digit symbol substitution test. Data was analyzed by SPSS 20.0. Pearson correlation coefficient was applied to observe the association between the variables.Results: For association of depression and cognition, the value of R is -0.5212. This is a moderate negative correlation. The value of R 2 , the coefficient of determination, is 0.2716. For association of anxiety and cognition, the value of R is -0.268. This indicates negative correlation. The value of R 2 , the coefficient of determination, is 0.0718. For association between the stress and cognition, the value of R is -0.1718, which indicates a negative correlation. The value of R 2 , the coefficient of determination, is 0.0295.Conclusion: There was negative correlation between the depression, anxiety and stress and cognitive functions. It is the need of time to increase awareness in students about stress and train them with coping methods to improve their academic performance and to limit student suicides in our country.