Dental environment and war-related stress among dental students, Yemen

Abstract

Background: Education related to health sciences appears to be the most stressful. Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the perceived stress among Yemeni dental students and to explore the effect of the war circumstances on the perceived stress. Methods: This cross-sectional study targeted all dental students at the two main dental faculties in Yemen. Dental environmental stress questionnaire was used. An extra 12 items (as one domain) were developed to reflect the stress resulting from the current war circumstances. Results: A total of 1051 dental students participated in this study. The overall dental environmental stress was 1.63�0.45. The most significant stressor domain was "workload", followed by "war-related" along with "performance pressure". In general, females, married, and clinical students, and those with lower GPA scored significantly higher stress levels than their counterparts. Regression analysis revealed that the university, sex, and study level as the most significant determinants for most domains. Conclusions: The level of stress among Yemeni dental students can be considered as moderate to high. This stress was further exacerbated by the war circumstances present.