EVALUATION OF STRESSORS AMONG

STUDENTS AND INTERNS STAYING IN

HOSTEL OF DENTAL COLLEGE - A CROSS

SECTIONAL STUDY

ISSN No: 2582-0559

To access & cite this article

Website: jidam.idamadras.com

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

Hostel is a place for the students where they

need to remain far away from their home for their academic

education. Here they face many challenges; a number of which is

going to become the cause for his or her stress. Some students get

adjusted with this environment very rapidly and simply. But some take

years to get adjusted with it. So to evaluate, the stressor among the

dental undergraduates and interns, the present study was conducted.

OBJECTIVE:

evaluate

the

stressors

among

students & interns staying in hostel of dental college.

METHODOLOGY:

A questionnaire based cross sectional study

was conducted.

RESULT:

Out of 167 participants, 109 (65%) were in moderate stress.

13 (9%) of the female participants were in high stress and 73 (69%) of

them were in moderate stress who haven’t any history of previous stay.

CONCLUSION:

Majority of the participants of this study were in

moderate stress. The most stressors within the present study participant

were associated with studies and college while listening music was that

the best way they found to alleviate their stress. Their opinion towards

relieving stress was sharing with friends and parents, shopping, watching

motivational videos and never abandoning in any situation.

KEYWORDS:

Clinical, dental students, hostel, preclinical, stress.

Volume No: 9, Issue No: 2

Address for Correspondence:

Dr Anita Rama Kahar

Hansapuri Jyotinagar Khadan,

Near Durga Devi Temple,

Nagpur (MS) India

Email id- dranitakahar@gmail.com

Received

: 18.05.2022

Accepted

: 21.06.2022

First Published

: 22.06.2022

Published

: 27.6.2022

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Dr Anita Rama Kahar, Dr Jayashree Joshi, Dr Usha Radke, Dr Neelam Pande

Department of Prosthodontics,VSPM Dental College & Research Centre, Nagpur (MS) India.

DOI:1.37841/jidam_2022_V9_I2_02

Volume No: 9, Issue No: 2

Anita et al: Stressors among Dental Undergraduates & Interns Staying In Hostel

INTRODUCTION

Stress has invaded the life of every individual and needless to

mention even students haven’t been spared. The severity

of stress increases as they reach adolescence or adulthood

The major sources of stress among students has found to be

need for academic achievement, pressure from parents, desire

to pursue education and better level of aspiration, pressure for

academic achievement

Dental education are often a large source of stress among

dental students, and studies have observed higher levels of

stress among dental students than the general population

Alzahem and colleagues in their systemic review categorized

stressors into five groups: living accommodation, educational

environment, personal, academic and clinical factors.

Examinations and grades are frequently reported to be the

foremost stressful factors, alongside limited time for

relaxation

4,5

Once we mention, coping the strain among the students; one

among the most important support is family. The family support

not only moderates the consequences of stress, but also helps

to deal with stressful situation. From the family they get emotional,

moral support and guidance to unravel problems. But there are an

outsized number of students who stand back from their families

in hostels, to achieve academic and professional qualifications.

Each student experiences this transition during a unique way that

can’t be generalised. Their family environment is replaced by

hostel environment where, they are available across many

stressful situations. Hostellers find many problems e.g. home

sickness, relationships with other residents of staff members,

hostel facilities, managing finances and difficulties with certain

rules and regulations. Additionally to those problems, they face

many academic and institutional problems too

The students who had a previous history of hostel stay

they get easily amalgamate with new environment

but the new students find it difficult to regulate with a

replacement environment resulting in starting of the method of

stress. So to understand about the various stressors among the

students who are staying in hostel this study was conducted.

AIM

To evaluate the stressors among students & interns staying in

hostel of dental college.

OBJECTIVES

• To evaluate the stressors among first to final BDS students

& interns staying in hostel.

• To evaluate correlation between stressors and socio-

economic status of the participants.

• To compare the stressors between the gender.

• To compare the stressors between preclinical & clinical

year.

• To compare stressors consistent with the history of student’s

previous stay in hostel or not.

• To evaluate correlation between stressors and parents

working either single or both.

METHODOLOGY

Ethical approval: An institutional ethical committee

approval was obtained to conduct the study. A cross- sectional

questionnaire based study was designed.

Study instrument: A pre-validated thirteen item

questionnaire

in which ten questions were supported five point

Likert scale, two were close ended and one was open ended.

Study Samples: First to final BDS students and interns of

VSPM Dental College & Research Centre, Nagpur. Student’s

age, gender, family background previous hostel stay and

socioeconomic status (SES) was asked within the first part

of questionnaire which was kept confidential. For the SES;

modified Kuppuswamy scale

was used. The oral consent

was obtained from the participants for the participation. The

unwilling participants and the absent students on the day of

questionnaire distribution were excluded. The questionnaire
was distributed among the students and interns.

QUESTIONNAIRE

Name of student ((Optional) : ______________________ Age: __________ Sex: M / F

Your position: I BDS / II BDS / III BDS / IV BDS / Intern

Whether stayed in hostel previously- Yes/ No If yes- duration of the stay – _______ Parents working- Both/ Single

S.no Questions

Never

Rare

Sometimes

Frequently

Always

Do you feel homesick?

Do you feel lonely?

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Anita et al: Stressors among Dental Undergraduates & Interns Staying In Hostel

Do you feel stressed during the examination?

Do you feel tensed regarding competition in

studies?

Do you feel apprehended about the teachers?

Do you feel stressed while co-habiting

(stayingwith the room-partner / partners

Do you feel stressed regarding future career

prospects?

Do you feel tensed regarding the high

expectations of parents/ relatives from you?

How often do you feel the need for a

counselor?

Does your stress give rise to any health

related issues?

Kindly tick appropriate option (You can tick more than one options)

Your stress is related to what

basis?

College

Personal Family

Friends

Studies

What do you do when you feel

stressed?

Music/

movies

Sports

Spiritual

activity

Addiction /

medicines

Yoga

Your opinion regarding getting

rid of stress?

(In your words)

DATA ANALYSIS & STATISTICS

The completed questionnaires were collected back and the data

was analyzed. There have been about total thirteen questions in

which ten supported Likert scale. The choices were from

never to always for which scoring was given from one to

five. This way the minimum score for ten questions was 10

and maximum was 50. To seek out the participants stress

level; one stress scale is formulated during which if the score

comes below ten, participant is taken into account like no

stress; if the score is in between 10 to 24 the participant is

taken into account have a low stress. If the scoring is

between 25 to 37 then it will be a moderate stress and if

the score is 38 and above, then it come under a high stress.

To calculate the p value between the groups; independent t

test and ANOVA test was applied by using online Open Epi
calculator version 3.

RESULTS

The study was conducted in the month of March 2018, 167

participants participated in the study. Out of them; 146 were

female and 21 were male with the mean age of 20.87 years.

According to year, there were about 47,26,39,17 and 38 are the

participants from first year, second year, third year, final year

and interns respectively. According to SES status, there were

about 90, 62, 14 and 1 are the participants from SES I, II, III

and IV respectively. According to the history of previous hostel

stay of the participants; there were about 61 participants who

have the history of previous hostel stay and 106 participants are

having no history of it.

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Table 1: Stress level of participants according to their year of study

Stress

level

High

stress

(8%)

Moderate

stress

109 (65%)

Low stress

45 (27%)

Total

N=167

ANOVA

test

results

I YR

(6%)

30 (64%)

14 (30%)

P value

0.896768

II YR

4 (15%)

16 (62%)

6 (23%)

III YR

2 (5%)

23 (59%)

14 (36%)

IV YR

2 (12%)

12 (71%)

3 (18%)

INTERN

2 (5%)

28 (74%)

8 (21%)

Table 2: Stress level of participants according to their SES status

S E S
status*

High stress

Moderate
stress

L o w
stress

Total

ANOVA test
results

7 (8%)

54 (60%)

29 (32%)

P value

0.45375

3 (5%)

46 (74%)

13 (21%)

III

3 (21%)

8 (57%)

3 (21%)

1 (100%)

Total

109

167

*SES status- socio-economic status

Table 3: Stress level of participants according history of hostel stay

Previous History
of hostel stay

H i g h
stress

Moderate
stress

Low stress Total

t - t e s t
results

No history of
previous stay

9 (8%)

73 (69%)

24 (23%)

106

P
value

0.9665

History

previous stay

4 (7%)

36(59%)

21 (34%)

Total

109

167

Table 4: Stress level of participants according their parents working

Previous History
of hostel stay

H i g h
stress

Moderate
stress

Low stress Total

t - t e s t
results

Both

parents

working

1 (4%)

20 (74%)

6 (22%)

P
value

0.7353

Single

parent

working

12(9%)

89 (64%)

39 (28%)

140

Total

109

167

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Table 5: Participants stress score according to questions

Five point Likert

scale questions

Never

Rare

Sometimes

Frequent

Always

T o t a l

participants

N-167

Q1. Feeling of

homesickness

8 (5%)

31 (19%)

83 (50%)

30 (18%)

15 (9%)

167

Q2. Feeling of

lonely

15 (9%)

55 (33%)

70 (42%)

19 (11%)

8 (5%)

167

Q3. Stressed during

examination

2 (1%)

16 (10%)

64 (38%)

45 (27%)

40 (24%)

167

Q4. Tense regarding

competitions

studies

15 (9%)

29 (17%)

66 (40%)

33 (20%)

24 (14%)

167

Q5.Apprehension

about the teachers

20 (12%)

51 (31%)

75 (45%)

10(6%)

4 (2%)

167

Q6.stress

while

staying with room

partner

65 (39%)

38 (23%)

50 (30%)

10 (6%)

4 (2%)

167

Q7. Stress due

to future career

prospects

7 (4%)

20 (12%)

69 (41%)

38 (23%)

33 (20%)

167

Q8.Tensed due to

high expectations

of parents

28 (17%)

37 (22%)

61 (37%)

25 (15%)

16 (10%)

167

Q9.

Need

counsellor

39 (23%)

38 (23%)

54 (32%)

29 (17%)

7 (4%)

167

Q10.Helath related

issues due to stress

49 (29%)

36 (22%)

55 (33%)

18 (11%)

9 (5%)

167

Graph 1 : Stress level of participants staying in Hostel

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Anita et al: Stressors among Dental Undergraduates & Interns Staying In Hostel

Graph 2: Stress level according to gender of the participants

Graph 3: Stress level of participants according to Preclinic& clinical year of study

By following the stress score scale; result of the present study

is as under:

STRESS LEVEL OF THE PARTICIPANTS

STAYING IN HOSTEL

Out of 167 participants, 13 (8%) were in high stress, 109 (69%)

in moderate stress and 45 (27%) of the participant were in low

stress.

STRESS LEVEL ACCORDING TO

PARTICIPANT’S YEAR OF STUDY

The participants of the second year and final year were found

in high stress 4(15%), 2 (12%) respectively as compared to first

year, third year and interns. At the same time interns and first year

students 28 (74%) and 30 (64%) respectively were in moderate

stress as compare to other year participants. And third years and

first year students 14 (36%) and 14 (30%) respectively were in

low stress as compared to other year’s participants. The p value

of these findings is 0.89 which is statistically non-significant.

STRESS LEVEL ACCORDING TO

PARTICIPANT’S SES

According to SES status, about 3 (21%) of the SES III

participants were in high stress, 1 (100%) and 46 (74%) of

SES IV and SES II respectively were in moderate stress and 29

(32%) of SES I were in low stress group as compared to other

SES group of the participants. To calculate the p value, SES

class IV was excluded, the p value is 0.45 which is statistically

non-significant.

STRESS LEVEL ACCORDING TO GENDER

Out of 167, there were about 146 female and 21 were male

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participants. Out 146, 13 (9%) of the female participants were

in high stress while no male participants were found in high

stress scale. The p value is 0.38 which is again statistically

non-significant.

STRESS LEVEL ACCORDING TO

PRECLINICAL AND CLINICAL YEAR OF

STUDY

Seven (10%) students of the preclinical year student were

found more in high stress as compare to 6 (6%) of the clinical

year students of the present study. The p value of this group

is 0.62 which is statistically non-significant.

STRESS LEVEL ACCORDING TO

PARTICIPANT’S PREVIOUS HISTORY

OF HOSTEL STAY

There were about 61 participants who had a history of

previous hostel stay and 106 of them had no history. Out of

106 participants; 9 (8%), 73 (69%), 24 (23%) were in high,

moderate and low stress group respectively as compare to

participants having previous history of hostel stay. The

p value of this group is 0.96 which is statistically non-

significant.

STRESS LEVEL ACCORDING TO

PARTICIPANT’S PARENTS WORKING

There were about 27 and 140 participants whose both and

single parents are working respectively. Surprisingly, the

participants whose single parent is working is found to be

more in stress as compare to participants of both working

parents. Again the p value for this group also came statistically

non-significant which is 0.73.

There were about two close ended questions. When the

participants were asked about their relation of stress; about

36 (22%) of them responded that it is related to studies and

25 (15%) said it is related to college, while for 18 (11%) it is

personal and for 1% it is related to family and friends. At the

same time 85 (50%) of them given mixed answers. The next

question was; what they do during stress. About 114 (68%)

of them listen music when they feel stressed while 7 (4%)

play sports, 3 (2%) engaged with spiritual activity while 2

(1%) take medicine and 3 (2%) perform yoga. At the same

time 38 (23%) gave mixed responses.

The last question was open ended that is, what was their

opinion regarding the relieving of stress. Here the respondents

of the present study gave very smart and intelligent answers.

They said, they should share their problems with best

friends, never give up, watch motivational videos, and share

with mother/parents. They also shared that they should take

a break and go for holiday. Some of them were also in favor

of sleeping, eating tasty food, going for shopping. And lastly

very fruitful answer given by one student is that; give you 5

minutes every day to eliminate the unnecessary stress. The

detailed result is given in

Table 1 to 5 and Graph 1 to 3.

DISCUSSION

In the present study, authors presented the result according to the

objectives. The published literature on the stress among the dental

students staying hostel is found to be very short.

1, 6

In the study

conducted by Shubhada Gade et al

, where they found out of 92

medical students staying in hostel, 17.39% of them were found in

stress. In the present study out of 167 students staying in hostel;

13 (8%) are in high stress, 109 (65%) in moderate stress, while 45

(27%) are in low stress group.

The stress level increases as the students enter into higher academic

courses. In the present study 63 (67%), clinical year students

were found more in moderate stress as compared to 46 (63%) of

the preclinical year students. In the hostel, students of different

culture, religion and socio-economic background are admitted. So

these socio-demographic factors also influence the stress on the

students. In the present study, there were about 90 students from

SES I and only one student belongs to SES IV. The results as seen

by the authors were 3 (21%) students from SES III were found

in high stress group. Different studies have reported that female

students universally reported higher levels of stress and anxiety

9-16

. The present study result also go in favour with these published

studies where 13 (9%) female students were found in high stress

while 8 (38%) male participants found in low stress.

When the authors has gone for question-wise scoring with Likert

scale, the question no 1, regarding the homesickness, it was

found that 30 (18%) participants feel home sickness. While Pooja

Chandra

in her study found 63% and 67% of academic course

hostellers and professional course hostellers respectively felt

homesickness. In the same study

44% and 79% of academic

course

and professional course hostellers respectively feel stressed when

exam approaches while in the

present study 40(24%) and 45(27%)

participants always and regularly

respectively feel stressed during

the examination. At an equivalent time there have been about 33

(20%) participants of the present study feel stressed regarding

their future career prospects while in the study

92% and 83% of

the academic course and professional course hostel students feel

stressed regarding their

future worries.

According to Shiny George

like medical students, dental

students are also susceptible to develop stress could also

be due to

the vast syllabus and academic, social activities and

private

issues. Humphriset al

in 2002 collected data from seven

European dental schools, where he concluded that the extent of

emotional fatigue was more in dental students in comparison to

medical students.

Long-term stress has been linked to the event of other disorders. A

study conducted among a Swedish population found an association

between different stress levels and mental health: high levels of

stress were related to depression, whereas low and moderate stress

levels were related to anxiety

In the present study also, there

have been about 18 (11%) participants who got health related

issues related to

stress.

Several strategies for stress management among dental

students are introduced and discussed within the literature, including

relaxation strategies, interpersonal approaches like counselling

systems, programs designed to enhance studying and test-taking

skills and stress management workshops

Because stress within

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Anita et al: Stressors among Dental Undergraduates & Interns Staying In Hostel

the dental educational environment is usually unavoidable,

stress management strategies are often recommended as an early

and integral a part of the dental curriculum. These strategies

could focus mainly on improving the perception of stressful

situations, the event of coping skills and therefore the avoidance

of maladaptive coping. Additionally, more emphasis should

be placed on the importance of humanistic faculty-student

relationships

Here, the authors want to share that our institute is running

Mentorship cell since November 2011 with very precise

name “Sarthi”. In Hindu mythology every Indian knows that,

in Mahabharata, how the Lord Krishna guided, supported

and helped out Arjuna in his difficult times of war between

Kauravas and Pandavas by becoming his driver (Sarthi) of

chariot (Ratha). Under our institute’s Mentorship cell, the team

arranges mentor-mentee meet once during a month. During this

meet, the mentee’s share and discuss their problem. They are

also allowed to approach

with their mentors anytime.

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The questionnaire was self-reported so answers given by the

participants could be biased. The psychology of each one

differs in several situations. As this was a cross sectional based

study, the responses was collected just one occasion. The study

will need to be designed as a longitudinal to gather the responses

during different situations to urge the precise responses during

different situations. Also the sample size should even have to be

increase to generalise the result and to urge fruitful results.

CONCLUSION

Majority of the participants of this study were in moderate

stress. The female participants were found in high stress. At an

equivalent time participants of no previous hostel stay and

whose single parent is working are found more in stress. The

main stressors within the present study participant are associated

with studies and college. While listening music is that the best

way they found to alleviate their stress. Their opinion towards

relieving stress is sharing with friends, parents, shopping, watching

motivational videos and never abandoning in any situation.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

No conflict of interest.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT AND SPONSORSHIP

Nil

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors sincerely thanks all the participants of first to final

BDS and interns staying in hostel for their active participation

in the study.

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