Utilization of therapies for stress management in Chilean clinical dental students.

Abstract

Dental students suffer greater stress than the rest of the university population. In general, most health students seek little assistance to help them cope with stress. The aim of this study is to evaluate the use of therapies to manage stress in Chilean clinical dental students. A cross-sectional study was conducted nationwide; this report is a secondary data analysis. The study population was dental students in clinical years (4 th and 5 th ) of 5 Chilean dental schools: Antofagasta, Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, Concepción, and La Frontera. This paper reports the use of therapies for stress management during the past six months considering four options: medical/psychiatric, psychological, self-medication and alternative. Tabulation and analysis were done in STATA 10/SE. Three hundred thirty-seven students were surveyed, 54.01% were men and 64.99% were in fourth year, with an average age of 22.94±2.04. The 48.07% of students have used any of the four types of therapies; women and fourth-year students use more any form of therapy with 53.30% (p=.037) and 48.86% (p=.694), respectively, than men and fifth year students. About half of the students have used some form of therapy to manage stress in the last six months; of the students that received therapy, the percentage of women was significantly higher.