Dental Environment Stress: Findings among Lusophone Dental Students

Abstract

Objective: To perform cross-cultural adaptation of the Dental Environment Stress (DES), to test its construct validity and reliability, and to identify the sources of stress among Brazilian dental students. Material and Methods: The DES was transculturally adapted to Portuguese using translation/back-translation, review by an expert bilingual committee and consensus building. The first version was tested in a sample of 42 dental students to check the understanding level of the alternatives. The final version was applied to all the students enrolled in a Brazilian Public Dental School. Construct validity was assessed through factor analysis, performed by principal components analysis and Varimax rotation and reliability by internal Cronbach's alpha coefficient (95% CI). Wilcoxon rank sum was conducted to test for gender and Kruskall-Wallis for year comparison. Multivariate analysis relied on ordinal logistic regression modeling. Results: Factor analysis revealed five factors that possessed eigenvalues greater than 1.5 and together explained 46.88% of the total variance. Internal consistency of each factor was adequate, with Cronbach's alpha ranging from 0.65 to 0.84. 'Examinations and grades' (82.80%) was the highest scored item. Females presented higher rates, as well as second's and fifth's years students. The entering students were generally concerned with factors related to "Academic Performance", whereas clinical year students with "Insecurity Concerning their Professional Future". Conclusion: The Portuguese version of the DES presented good results, thus it could be a valid instrument to assess the factors of perceived stress in Lusophone countries, subsidizing the development of strategies to minimize the stress and optimize school performance.

Dental environmental stress during the COVID‑19 pandemic at the Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland

“…Longitudinal observations proved that stress related to work overload and clinical factors increased along with the duration of studies, while those associated with faculty and administration factors decreased. This contradicts the research by Menck Sangiorgio et al [24] which indicated a decrease in the overall levels of stressors as students progressed with their program. However, it should be remembered that the results presented here refer to the situation at a specific university.…”

“…As in other studies, the lowest level of stress was noted in the domains of personal factors and living accommodation [19,20,23,24]. In the latter area, the greatest stressor was the lack of time for rest/relaxation, especially in the fourth and fifth years of studies.…”

“…The dominant role of academic work in generating stress has also been demonstrated in other studies [18][19][20][21]24]. Elani et al [19] found that this stressor was equally strong at the pre-clinical and clinical stages of studies.…”

“…In the years of the clinical study during the COVID-19 pandemic, the most stressful aspects were: the shortage of allocated clinical time, especially in the third year; stress searchers, they also observed an increase in the strength of the previously insignificant stressors [18][19][20][23][24][25].…”

Dental environment and war-related stress among dental students, Yemen

“…In our study, female students had higher levels of stress than male counterparts in all stress domains except for "social stressors" domain. Many studies reported gender-related differences regarding DES (17,20,(37)(38)(39). Female students were more open to express stress issues than their male counterparts, and their response to stressors also differed.…”