The psychological impact of social distancing related to the covid-19 pandemic on undergraduate and graduate students in Brazil

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate the psychological impact of COVID-19 on undergraduate and graduate students of the Dental School of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo. Methods: Three questionnaires were used: sociodemographic, WHO Abbreviated Quality of Life Inventory, and General Anxiety Disorder-7. Data were analyzed using Graph Pad Prism 7a (α = 5%). Mann-Whitney or Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn post-tests were used for statistical comparisons. The Spearman test was used as the correlation test. Results: 257 students responded to the online form that assessed their quality of life and anxiety level. On a scale from 1 to 100, with 100 being the best quality of life, the average obtained was 64.71 (± 13.36). In addition, 87.6% of the students rated their quality of life as good or very good. 74.7% reported good or very good health. The anxiety analysis resulted in an average of 10.04 (± 4.5), indicating moderate anxiety levels. There was an inversely proportional correlation between age and degree of anxiety (p = 0.008, r = -0.1628) and self-perceived learning and student commitment (r = 0.69). Conclusion: Despite the good quality of life and the students’ good self-perception of health, they showed a moderate degree of anxiety during the social distancing caused by COVID-19, also demonstrating a decrease in interest and commitment during distance education.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the income of dentists in Brazil: a national questionnaire survey

“…O aumento dos serviços odontológicos privados oferecidos a custos mais baixos tem, consequentemente, reduzido os ganhos dos dentistas (FERREIRA et al, 2013). Na Alemanha, os dentistas tiveram que reduzir ou interromper completamente suas atividades profissionais devido ao decreto de bloqueio (SCHWENDICKE et al, 2020), que teve impacto econômico em todos os prestadores de serviços de saúde (HOUVÈSSOU et al, 2021). No Irã, na Itália e na Espanha, os dentistas também estavam muito preocupados com o fechamento dos consultórios odontológicos devido à pandemia e a consequente perd a de renda (DE STEFANI et al, 2020;CHAMORRO-PETRONACCI et al, 2020).…”