PREDICTING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING OF DENTAL STUDENTS DURING THE SEMESTER EVALUATION PERIOD: A PROSPECTIVE STUDY
about them are given in this paragraph. WHO-5 is an instrument developed by the World Health Organization, which measures self-reported positive psychological well-being. WHO-5 consists of a 5-item questionnaire, positively worded, with a time frame of previous two weeks. Its interpretation is in accordance to the score obtained, that ranges from 0 to 100 percentage score, where higher score means better well-being. To monitor change, a difference of WHO-5 percentage score out of 10 is considered clinically significant. 9, 10, 28, 29 MDI is also an instrument developed by the World Health Organization, and in this study it is used as a self-rating depression scale. It consists of a 10-item questionnaire, two of them having two alternative questions. It has a similar time frame, of previous two weeks. Its interpretation is in accordance to the score obtained, that ranges from 0 to 50. MDI results were recorded as scale score( where high score means higher severity of depression symptoms), were dichotomized according to the cut-off value of ≥20 into likely depression or not, and were recorded on an ordinal scale( mild depression: 20 to 24; moderate depression: 25 to 29; severe depression: ≥30). 30 Study limitations include the possibility that results are biased by specific factors of the population that the sample was drown, thus results need to be confirmed by studies implemented in other dental schools. Also, a deeper analysis, considering all years of study, effects on academic performance and health, through high quality prospective research is recommended.
5. Conclusions
The psychological well-being of the dental students decreases over the first semester of the academic year, reaching its lowest point during the semester evaluation period. The students’ well-being during the semester evaluation period seems to be poorly predicted by well-being at the beginning of the academic year, and it is better to assess it in similar periods with regard to the quality of the stressors( i. e. written examinations) or at the end of the teaching period. Considering the fact that medical training in general requires an increased number of examinations taken over a large time-interval, that may associate a cumulative reduction of well-being, the early identification of students at high risk to exhibit lowering levels of psychological well-being should be implemented in order to plan the necessary interventions to help students cope with the examination distress and prevent its unwanted consequences.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the project“ Programme of excellency in multidisciplinary doctoral and postdoctoral research of chronic diseases”, contract no. POSDRU / 159 / 1.5 / S / 133377, project co-financed by the European Social Fund through the Sectoral Operational Programme for Human Resources Development( SOP HRD) 2007-2013.
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