Factors Affecting Stress among the Selected Dental College Students in Dhaka

Abstract

Background: Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) course is a long course for undergraduate level in the medical sciences, which causes different types of stress among the significant number of students. Those stresses critically affect the physical and mental health of the students, which also effects on their academic performance and professional practice. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out to determine the factors affecting stress among 174 undergraduate dental students of selected three dental medical colleges in Dhaka through a pretested semi-structured questionnaire with the modified version of the Dental Environment Stress (DES) questionnaire. Results: Half of the undergraduate dental students (49.4%) were found in moderately stressful. As a sources of stress, personal factors were highly stressful, training factors were slightly stressful and academic environment were moderately stressful among the dental students. Level of stress were statistically significant with age group (0.001), marital state (0.047), studying class (0.001), conflict with parents over career (0.031) and reduced sleeping times (0.001). Conclusion: The study shows that a proper academic environment needs to be formed for dental students through modifying the academic curriculum and evalution systems and proper counseling program to improve their motivation, self-confidence and productivity in their performance.