Perceived sources of stress among dental students in Port Harcourt

Dental education is regarded as a stressful learning environment due to the clinical and laboratory requirements as well as in-depth theoretical knowledge. Therefore the objective of this study was to identify sources of stress among dental students in University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The study was a descriptive cross-sectional study among undergraduate dental students at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The students were surveyed using a modified version of the Dental Environment Stress (DES) survey. Age, sex, year of study, marital status and monthly allowance were also recorded. All descriptive, as well as inferential statistical analysis, was carried out using SPSS ver. 20.0 and the value of p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. A total of 84 students participated in the study. The median age for the students was 23 years, with a range of 19-30 years. The majority (94.0%) of the respondents were single. The total mean DES score was 2.46. Higher mean DES scores were observed among females, clinical students and those with a more monthly allowance; however, these were not statistically significant (p >0.05). The most common causes of moderate to severe stress were lack of time for relaxation, workload, the responsibility of getting suitable patients and fulfilling clinical requirements. There was no significant difference in the perceived stress levels across gender and level of study. The commonest stressors were workload and lack of relaxation time. There is a need to re-examine the dental curricula to identify ways to reduce workload. Also, there is a need to implement strategies to manage stress among dental students.