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PREDICTING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING OF DENTAL STUDENTS DURING THE SEMESTER EVALUATION PERIOD : A PROSPECTIVE STUDY

Table 1 . Student ’ s positive well-being , assessed by WHO-5 scores , over the first semester of the academic year

Time Students WHO-5 score ( mean ) p

T1

T2

T3

T4

All ( T1 : T2 ): 0.038 * All ( T2 : T3 ): 0.136 All ( T3 : T4 ): 0.009 * All ( T1 : T4 ): 0.014 * Male : Female ( T1 ): 0.523 Male : Female ( T2 ): 0.103 Male : Female ( T3 ): 0.805 Male : Female ( T4 ): 0.084 From Bucharest : Other ( T1 ): 0.203 From Bucharest : Other ( T2 ): 0.667 From Bucharest : Other ( T3 ): 0.249 From Bucharest : Other ( T4 ): 0.529

2 . Materials and Methods

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee for Scientific Research at the “ Carol Davila ” University of Medicine and Pharmacy , Bucharest , Romania ( PO-35-F-03 , No . 55 ).

2.1 Study design and settings A prospective study was designed and implemented on a cohort of second year dental students from the Faculty of Dental Medicine , “ Carol Davila ” University of Medicine and Pharmacy , Bucharest , Romania . Data were collected during the first semester of the 2014-2015 academic year ( from October 1 st 2014 to February 15 th 2015 ), three consecutive times during the teaching period and one time during the semester exam period .

2.2 Subjects One series of second year dental students who attended the above-mentioned university was enrolled in this study . Enrolment was done considering all eligible subjects , who voluntarily agree to participate in this study . Repeaters and transferred students were excluded , because their courses are partially different from those of regular students , having usually less or more subjects to attend . All participants were informed upon the main characteristics of this study and a written informed consent was granted , in the beginning , and also in the follow-up appointments .

2.3 Variables The main study outcome was the subjective psychological well-being , assessed using the WHO-Five Well-being Index ( WHO-5 ) and the Major Depression Inventory ( MDI ). The Romanian language version of both questionnaires was used . The Romanian language version of WHO-5 that was used was the one available on the website dedicate to this index , that of the Psychiatric Research Unit ( Mental Health Centre North Zealand , Hillerod , Denmark ). The index has been previously tested and demonstrated to have good psychometric properties as a well-being scale and as a screening instrument for depression . 7 The Romanian language version of MDI that was used was the one available in the Romanian guide for adult depression for general practitioners . Other study variables were demographics ( age , sex ) and origin ( from Bucharest or other ). The latter was chosen on the idea that students from Bucharest experience less life changes , usually preserving their living accommodation and the relations with their family and friends .

2.4 Data collection Data were collected by administering a written questionnaire before or after classes , its timing being related to the academic activities , as favouring different levels of stress , as follows : T1 - 2 nd week of the teaching period , corresponding to the beginning of the first academic semester ; T2 - 7 th week of the teaching period , corresponding to its middle , during which half-semester theoretical examinations are scheduled for some of the courses taken ; the questionnaire was filled just after a written examination ; T3 - 13 th week of the teaching period , that was just after the Christmas and New Year break , corresponding to the end of the teaching period , when students have practical examinations for the seminars activities of most of the courses taken ; the questionnaire was filled just after a practical examination ; T4 - 4 th week ( last week ) of the semester exam period ; the questionnaire was administered just after a written examination .

2.5 Statistical methods Missing data , caused by not fully filling the questionnaire all four times , were managed by excluding the subject from the analysis . Data analysis included frequency distributions , Wilcoxon test , paired t-test , Mann-Whitney test and unpaired t-test . Change in well-being was assessed by change of WHO-5 score and MDI score . The difference of WHO-5 scores of at least 10 , considered as a clinically significant change