Prevalence of Stress and Sense of Coherence (13-Items) Among Dental Students in Chennai: An Institution Based Study

Abstract

Background:The Sense of Coherence (SOC) scale is a common tool in medical and dental fields of study. When determining an individual's orientation and internal strengths, a sense of coherence is thought to be a useful term. In contrast to the pathogenic model suggested by Antonovsky, a well-developed sense of coherence (SOC) is indeed a positive psychology personality trait that promotes optimal adjustment in a number of domains of functioning. There are three components to determine stress- Meaningfulness, Manageability and compressibility. This study investigates the prevalence of stress and sense of coherence 13-items) among dental students in Chennai.

Materials and methods:A cross-sectional study with random sampling. A convenience sample size of 100 were selected. A structured close ordered questionnaire covering demographic characteristics, speciality, preferences and factors that influenced career preferences, All the responses were collected and exported in SPSS version 2.3 software. Descriptive status was used for data summarisation and presentation. Mean difference in SOC-score with outcome variables was assessed using T-test and anova. Statistical significance level was set as 5%.

Results: The result shown in SOC subscales there is no variation among gender i.e., almost males and females have the same ability of sense of coherence (p = 0.077) to deal with stress. But on accommodation days scholars have the highest ability to cope up with stress than hostellites (p = 0.078). The reliability and validity of the study was assessed and was found to be adequate for this population

Conclusion:The current research and previous literature both point to the fact that psychological distress, such as stress, anxiety, and depression, is extremely common among medical students. More research is needed to uncover the causes of such high rates of mental illnesses, as well as confirmatory methods to validate the current study's results.