Stress perception among dental practitioners in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional survey

ABSTRACT

The coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) significantly impacted dental health practition-ers. Dentists are exposed to uncertain fears affecting them mentally and financially, leading to a multi-fold increase in anxiety and stress. To assess the stress levels among the dental practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic and evaluate perceptions of dental practitioners after a pandemic outbreak. A well-self-administered questionnaire was designed, and Google forms were sent to participants. The questionnaire involves demographic details (section 1), Cohen's stress levels (section 2), and perceptions of dental practice after pandemic (section 3). The comparisons were made based on sex, age group, qualification, and occupation. Descriptive statistics were performed using SPSS (version 17.0, Chicago, IL, USA). Overall, 376 participants in the survey, 66.2% (249) were males, and 33.8% (127) were females. The most common age group of respondents was 31-40 years (44.7%). Occupation wise 44.4% were private practitioners, while postgraduates were 49.5% among the study population. The comparison of stress mean scores among the sexes showed non-significant (p > 0.05) while there was evidence of significance among the age group, qualifications, and occupations of the participants (p < 0.05). The overall mean stress score level was 19.95, whereas males (20 +/- 7.7), private dental practitioners (21.9 +/- 7.9), and participants of more than 50 years of age (26.1 +/- 7.8) got high-stress scores, respectively. The dentists with graduates in the study showed (17.5 +/- 7.5) had the least stress scores. Overall dental practitioners are at moderate stress levels;among them, males, private practitioners, and dentists above 50 years of age exhibited more stress, whereas graduates had the least stress scores. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by MRE Press.