Dataset Information

Psychological distress and its correlates among dental students: a survey of 17 Colombian dental schools.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Links between the demanding nature of studies in the health sciences, students' personality traits and psychological distress have been well-established. While considerable amount of work has been done in medicine, evidence from the dental education arena is sparse and data from Latin America are lacking. The authors conducted a large-scale investigation of psychological distress among dental students in Colombia and sought to determine its curriculum and student-level correlates.

Methods

The Spanish version of the Derogatis' Symptoms Checklist Revised (SCL-90-R) was administered to all students officially registered and attending classes or clinics in 17 dental schools in 4 geographic districts of Colombia between January and April 2012. Additional information was collected on participants' socio-demographic information and first career choice, as well as school's characteristics such as class size. The Global Severity Index (GSI) score, a measure of overall psychological distress, served as the primary analytical endpoint. Analyses relied on multilevel mixed-effects linear and log-binomial regression, accounting for study design and sample characteristics.

Results

A total of 5700 dental students completed the survey, a response rate of 67%. Pronounced gradients were noted in the association between socio-economic status and psychological distress, with students in higher strata reporting fewer problems. After adjustment for all important covariates, there was an evident pattern of increasing psychological distress corresponding to the transition from the didactic, to the preclinical and clinical phases of training, with few differences between male and female students. Independent of other factors, reliance on own funds for education and having dentistry as the first career choice were associated with lower psychological distress.

Conclusions

Levels of psychological distress correlated with students' socio-economic and study-level characteristics. Above and beyond the influence of person-level factors, variations in levels of distress paralleled specific transitional stages of the 5-year dental curriculum, providing opportunities for targeted interventions.

SUBMITTER: Divaris K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3702479 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Psychological distress and its correlates among dental students: a survey of 17 Colombian dental schools.

Divaris Kimon K Mafla Ana Cristina AC Villa-Torres Laura L Sánchez-Molina Marisol M Gallego-Gómez Clara Liliana CL Vélez-Jaramillo Luis Fernando LF Tamayo-Cardona Julián Andrés JA Pérez-Cepeda David D Vergara-Mercado Martha Ligia ML Simancas-Pallares Miguel Ángel MÁ Polychronopoulou Argy A

BMC medical education 20130626

<h4>Background</h4>Links between the demanding nature of studies in the health sciences, students' personality traits and psychological distress have been well-established. While considerable amount of work has been done in medicine, evidence from the dental education arena is sparse and data from Latin America are lacking. The authors conducted a large-scale investigation of psychological distress among dental students in Colombia and sought to determine its curriculum and student-level correla ...[more]

PMID: 23802917

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Project description:ObjectivesPsychological distress is a problem strongly associated with socio-economic conditions. This study aims to assess rates of psychological distress and 'poor' self-rated health among Palestinian citizens of Israel, who constitute 21% of the population and nearly 50% live in poverty, and compare their psychological distress scores with those of the general Israeli population.DesignThe Health and Environment Survey among Palestinian citizens of Israel (HESPI-2015), included a representative sample of this minority; 2018 individuals aged ?18 were interviewed. The questionnaire included socio-demographic and health-related information, the General Health Questionnaire-12, (GHQ-12) and Self-rating of health (SRH).ResultsSubjects with GHQ-12 global scores of ?17 were considered to have high distress. Low education, female gender, obesity and the presence of chronic diseases were significantly associated with high psychological distress over and above the effect of the other variables. Poor SRH was strongly associated with having a chronic disease and additional risk factors were older age group, low education and high psychological distress. Comparing psychological distress scores of Arabs in Israel with those of the general population showed that 30% of the former were classified as asymptomatic, as compared to 75% in the general population while the proportion of symptomatic or highly symptomatic was 14% in the latter as compared with 45% in the former.ConclusionsIt appears that the burden of poverty, chronic disease and low education in this population, which suffers from multiple stressors, is disproportionate and should be addressed by the authorities, together with concrete plans to improve the education of the younger generations. Clearly, the association between discriminating policies and deprivation with psychological distress is not unique to the case of the Palestinian minority in Israel and therefore this study will allow for the examination and generalization of the current findings to other discriminated and disadvantaged minorities.

Project description:BackgroundThe international migration of physicians is a global public health problem. Lebanon is a source country with the highest emigration factor in the Middle East and North Africa and the 7th highest in the World. Given that residency training abroad is a critical step in the migration of physicians, the objective of this study was to survey students of Lebanese medical schools about their intentions to train abroad and their post training plans.MethodsOur target population consisted of all students of Lebanese medical schools in the pre-final and final years of medical school. We developed the survey questionnaire based on the results of a qualitative study assessing the intentions and motives for students of Lebanese medical schools to train abroad. The questionnaire inquired about student's demographic and educational characteristics, intention to train abroad, the chosen country of abroad training, and post-training intention of returning to Lebanon.ResultsOf 576 eligible students, 425 participated (73.8% response rate). 406 (95.5%) respondents intended to travel abroad either for specialty training (330 (77.6%)) or subspecialty training (76 (17.9%)). Intention to train abroad was associated with being single compared with being married. The top 4 destination countries were the US (301(74.1%)), France (49 (12.1%)), the United Kingdom (31 (7.6%)) and Canada (17 (4.2%)). One hundred and two (25.1%) respondents intended to return to Lebanon directly after finishing training abroad; 259 (63.8%) intended to return to Lebanon after working abroad temporarily for a varying number or years; 43 (10.6%) intended to never return to Lebanon. The intention to stay indefinitely abroad was associated male sex and having a 2nd citizenship. It was inversely associated with being a student of one of the French affiliated medical schools and a plan to train in a surgical specialty.ConclusionAn alarming percentage of students of Lebanese medical schools intend to migrate for post graduate training, mainly to the US. A minority intends to return directly to Lebanon after finishing training abroad.

Dataset Information

Psychological distress and its correlates among dental students: a survey of 17 Colombian dental schools.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Psychological distress and its correlates among dental students: a survey of 17 Colombian dental schools.

Similar Datasets

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