Document Type : مقاله‌های پژوهشی

Abstract

Introduction: Stress plays an important role in producing mental disorders and reducing the efficacy of individuals. University students are exposed to many stressors; especially dental students are exposed to high levels of stress because of the nature of dental profession, working in a clinical environment, and high amount of theoretical courses and practical assignments. This study aimed to assess the perceived stress due to different factors among senior dental students of the Medical Sciences Universities in Iran. Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, 298 senior dental students who were in the last two years of their studies were included. The samples were selected by a multi-stage sampling of the three first-ranking faculties and four second-ranking faculties of medical sciences universities in Iran. Data were gathered by a self-administered questionnaire which evaluated 37 stressors and evaluated by descriptive analyses and independent t-test. Results: Of all the students evaluated, 57.5% were female; 45% declared that they experienced stress during dental procedures because of worried about transmission of communicable infectious diseases like AIDS and hepatitis. The most important stressful factors for students were insufficient time between the theoretical classes and the practical courses (38%), and insufficient number of academic staff members for the students (36%) were other stressful factors. Stressful factors related to educational issues and being worried about communicable infectious diseases were more prominent in female students than male students, while working during study years was more stressful for male students (p value < 0.05). Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that factors such as being worried about communicable infectious diseases and some factors related to educational issues are stressful factors among university students. Key words: Dental students, Education, Stressful factors.