Effect of year of study on stress levels in male undergraduate dental students

Figures & data

Table 1 Number of participants from each study year

Year of study	Students	Proportion of total (%)	Response rate (%)
First year	41	19.2	63.0
Second year	57	26.6	83.8
Third year	83	38.8	95.4
Fourth year	19	8.9	30.1
Fifth year	14	6.5	22.6

Table 2 Means, SDs, and 95% CIs for differences in scores on items of the questionnaire (n = 214)

Questionnaire items	Mean	SD	95% CI
			Lower	Upper
Examinations	3.38	1.28	3.21	3.56
Completing clinical requirement	3.28	1.51	3.10	3.52
References and information resources	3.07	1.32	2.89	3.24
Insufficient treatment time	3.04	1.36	2.87	3.26
System of study	2.98	1.40	2.79	3.17
Differences in opinion between clinical staff	2.97	1.35	2.80	3.17
Transition from preclinical to clinical staff	2.87	1.36	2.70	3.08
Competition for grades	2.85	1.29	2.68	3.02
Difficulty in managing difficult cases	2.82	1.35	2.64	3.02
Compliance of patients (patients turn up to appointment)	2.81	1.54	2.60	3.03
Inadequate time for relaxation	2.79	2.02	2.51	3.06
Confidence in own clinical decision-making	2.74	1.44	2.55	2.95
Communication with patients	2.73	1.38	2.55	2.93
Amount of information given	2.71	1.27	2.54	2.89
Uncertainty about the field of study as a future career	2.71	1.44	2.51	2.91
Reduced holidays	2.69	1.45	2.50	2.89
Health hazard at work	2.68	1.40	2.50	2.88
Rules and regulations at work	2.66	1.43	2.47	2.86
Difficulty in learning and mastering precision manual skill	2.66	1.34	2.48	2.85
Adequacy of clinical supervision	2.54	1.44	2.34	2.74
New curriculum topics	2.53	1.27	2.36	2.70
Manual dexterity and manual skill	2.51	1.43	2.32	2.71
Self confidence	2.40	1.43	2.20	2.60
Conducive environment for teaching	2.38	1.29	2.20	2.55
Communication with and approachability of staff	2.37	1.37	2.18	2.55
Teaching language	2.34	1.38	2.15	2.53
Receiving criticism at work	2.22	1.53	2.00	2.43
Social demands (married or unmarried, family, social expectation)	2.16	1.71	1.92	2.39
Teaching and communication language at work	2.12	1.45	1.92	2.31
Financial problems, eg, travel, accommodation, fees, clothes, food	2.06	1.66	1.84	2.29
Discrimination between students	1.99	1.58	1.78	2.20
Lack of recreation places within accommodation	1.82	1.42	1.61	2.00
Accommodation is not an appropriate environment for study	1.78	1.39	1.59	1.97
Discrimination by origin, color, or race	1.75	1.69	1.52	1.98
Living away from home	1.72	1.53	1.50	1.92
Personal health (chronic disease, drugs, others)	1.71	1.60	1.48	1.92
Difficulty in making friends	1.57	1.40	1.38	1.75
Staying with flatmates	1.54	1.36	1.35	1.72
Total	2.46	0.91	2.34	2.58

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; SD, standard deviation.

Table 3 Stress through years of study: means, standard deviations, and 95% confidence intervals of the difference of the five factors of the questionnaire (n = 214)

Factor	Factor I		Factor II		Factor III		Factor IV		Factor V		Total
Year	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD
First	1.51	1.11	1.56	1.18	1.26	1.13	1.70	0.98	1.34	1.40	1.48	0.96
Second	0.99	1.07	1.65	1.05	2.18	0.99	2.87	0.94	3.38	0.99	2.43	0.75
Third	1.69	1.07	2.47	1.10	2.78	0.94	2.93	0.80	3.08	0.90	2.74	0.71
Fourth	1.80	1.09	1.94	1.11	2.62	0.87	2.74	0.93	3.13	0.91	2.56	0.79
Fifth	1.37	0.83	2.41	1.07	2.77	1.04	2.81	0.70	3.23	0.78	2.69	0.63
95% CI
Lower	1.54		2.00		2.16		2.58		2.70		2.34
Upper	1.87		2.33		2.46		2.85		3.02		2.58

Abbreviations: Factor I, living accommodation factor; Factor II, personal factor; Factor III, educational environment factor; Factor IV, academic factor; Factor V, clinical factor; CI, confidence interval; SD, standard deviation; M, mean.