Assessment of the Level of Perceived Stress and Quality of Life in Students and Professors of Ardabil Dental School during the Covid-19 Epidemic in the Academic Year 2020-2021

Abstract

Background & objectives : The 2019 coronavirus pandemic is a major threat to global public health due to unprecedented individual and social fear and anxiety and it puts significant stress on health-related quality of life and challenges health care professionals, including dentists, with increasing patient burdens, unprecedented disruptions in normal life and The high risk of being exposed to the disease has put them in stressful situations and therefore they are more exposed to stressful situations that can affect their quality of life. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of investigating the level of perceived stress and the quality of life of the students and professors of Ardabil Dental School in the face of the outbreak of the 2019 coronavirus disease in 2021 and the relationship between these two variables with the demographic characteristics of the participants. Methods: To measure the level of perceived stress, Cohen's Perceived Stress Questionnaire was used, and to measure the quality of life, the World Health Organization Quality of Life Standard Questionnaire-Abbreviated (WHOQOL-BREF) was used. The statistical population in this study is all dental professors and dental students of the Faculty of Dentistry of Ardabil University of Medical Sciences. A significance level of less than 0.05 was considered. Results: From the statistical population of this study, a total of 227 people including 33 professors and 194 students participated in the study. There was no significant relationship between demographic variables and perceived stress variables and quality of life. Perceived stress and quality of life were higher for professors than for students during the pandemic. There was a direct relationship between perceived stress variables and quality of life in both groups. The level of perceived stress in both groups was lower than the optimal level and the quality of life in both groups was higher than the optimal level. Conclusion: Students and professors of Ardabil Faculty of Dentistry experienced moderate stress during the Covid-19 epidemic and had a good quality of life. By comparing between the two groups of participants, professors had more perceived stress.