ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine the association of the stress level, fatigue symptoms, and sleep quality with oral health behavior of preclinical pharmacy students. Material and Methods: Observational analytic study surveyed the students of the Faculty of Pharmacy of Hasanuddin University. From the total 205 sample of pharmacy students, 77 students drawn from the 2017 year of study, 68 students from the 2016 year of study, and 60 students from the 2015 year of study. The study consisted of 4 questionnaires, which are Perceived Stress Scale, Fatigue Assessment Scale, Karolinska Sleep Questionnaire and questions that assess oral health behaviors reported per individual. Data were collected and analyzed statistically using Chi-square test and Fisher's exact test. The level of significance was set at 5%. Results: The percentage of oral health behaviors in terms of the frequency of tooth brushing, use of dental floss, use of tongue cleaner and use of mouthwash increase as the year of study. In contrast to the percentage of stress level, awakening difficulties symptoms, sleep disturbance symptoms, daytime sleepiness symptoms and fatigue symptoms tended to decrease according to the year of study. Significant associations found among students who are under stress with the frequency of dental floss (p<0.05). However, no significant association was found between the fatigue symptoms, awakening difficulties symptoms, sleep disturbance symptoms, and daytime sleepiness symptoms with oral health behavior (p>0.05). Conclusion: There is an association between stress levels with the use of dental floss.