Effects of COVID-19 epidemic on mental health of dental students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2020

Abstract

Objectives: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has imposed panic and fear among people in the community, and has endangered the mental health of people, including students. The purpose of this study was to determine the psychological effects of COVID-19 outbreak on dental students of our university in 2020. Methods and materials: The present cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 133 dental students from the fifth and 11th semesters in our University. Data collection tools included the Demographic Information Questionnaire, the 28-item Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) to measure the psychological aspects, the BarOn Emotional Quotient-Inventory (BarOn EQ-i) to determine emotional intelligence, and the COVID-19 Anxiety Scale (CAS) of students during the epidemic. The reliability and validity of the questionnaires had already been reviewed and confirmed. The correlation of the scores of the questionnaires was evaluated by Pearson correlation coefficient and the effects of different variables in predicting the scores of the questionnaires by regression model. Results: Among the tested students, the mean GHQ-28 score was 35.73%, the mean BarOn EQ-i score was 59.94%, and the mean CAS score was 25.27%. There was a significant and direct correlation between GHQ-28 and BarOn EQ-i scores and also a significant and negative correlation between GHQ-28 and CAS scores and between BarOn EQ-i and CAS scores. Conclusion: Despite limited CAS scores and high BarOn EQ-i scores, psychological disorders were observed in a significant number of students during the COVID-19 pandemic period; there is a need for therapeutic and counseling interventions to mitigate the effects of these disorders.