Health Education and Health Promotion

Aims: Dentists are at high risk of occupational exposure to aerosols, droplets, and droplet/aerosol particles emitted from patients' mouths during treatment. Therefore, it is natural for dentists to experience a level of fear in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study aimed to evaluate the association between fear induced by the COVID-19 epidemic and stress and anxiety scores among dental students.
Instrument & Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted in June 2020 among the dental students in Ahvaz, Iran. The standard questionnaire DASS-21 and fear of COVID-19 were used for assessment. The questionnaire was designed on the website https://survey.porsline.ir. A convenience sample of 229 dental students of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences completed the questionnaire. ANCOVA analysis was used to compare the mean scores of four components in different groups, and MANCOVA analysis was used to measure the effect of fear induced by COVID-19 on stress, anxiety, and depression scores, simultaneously.
Findings: More than 70% of students were normal in stress, anxiety, and depression. Mental health disorders, social support, and media pressure caused by COVID-19 had a significant relationship with the level of depression and stress scores (p<0.05). Likewise, multivariate analysis showed that the level of fear caused by COVID-19 triggered a significant effect on the score of anxiety, depression, and stress (p=0.001).
Conclusion: The analysis showed that the scores of anxiety, depression, stress, and some other characteristics, including the COVID-19 induced media pressure, are directly associated with the degree of fear of COVID-19. Since fear of disease causes a psychological reaction and threatens mental health, and might make coping with the disease more difficult, promising fear-reduction strategies are recommended during the COVID-19 pandemic mental health for dental students.