My first Magazine | Page 49

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

Table 2 . Change of positive well-being over the first academic semester

Well-being change WHO-5 score change ( mean )

Clinically significant change of well-being Improvement No change Worsening

Table 3 . Student ’ s well-being , assessed by MDI scores , over the first semester of the academic year Time Students MDI score ( mean ) p

T1

T2

T3

T4

All ( T1 : T2 ): 0.004 * All ( T2 : T3 ): 0.637 All ( T3 : T4 ): 0.261 All ( T1 : T4 ): < 0.001 * Male : Female ( T1 ): 0.194 Male : Female ( T2 ): 0.082 Male : Female ( T3 ): 0.681 Male : Female ( T4 ): 0.174 From Bucharest : Other ( T1 ): 0.229 From Bucharest : Other ( T2 ): 0.710 From Bucharest : Other ( T3 ): 0.799 From Bucharest : Other ( T4 ): 0.810 in well-being , was recorded on an ordinal scale ( improvement ; no change ; worsening ). Regression analysis was performed in order to assess if wellbeing during the teaching period ( in T1 , T2 , T3 ) predicts well-being during examination period ( in T4 ). SPSS Statistics was used to perform the statistical analysis . Significance was set at p < 0.05 ( significance level 95 %) for all statistical tests . p-value less than 0.05 as marked by “*”.

3 . Results

The selected series included ninety-two dental students , out of which eighty-five met the eligibility criteria and all agreed to participate in this research . Seventy of them ( response rate of 82 %) filled the questionnaires all four times . Most of them were females ( n = 49 ; 70 %), twenty years old ( n = 57 ; 81 %). Fifteen ( 21 %) students were from Bucharest . The students ’ well-being during the first academic semester . The students ’ well-being exhibited changes during the first academic semester , in terms of subjective positive psychological wellbeing , assessed by WHO-5 score , but also as the severity of depression symptoms , assessed by the MDI score . Observing the WHO-5 scores , a statistically significant reduction of well-being was noticed during the first half of the semester ( at T2 compared to T1 ), followed by a not statistically significant increase of it after a twoweek holiday ( at T3 compared to T2 ). In the winter exam period ( at T4 ), as expected , a statistically significant reduction in the students ’ well-being was observed , which reached its lowest level . A subgroup analysis showed that male students and Bucharest natives registered higher WHO-5 scores during the written exam period ( at T2 and T4 ), which means better well-being , at a level that was not statistically significant ( Table 1 ). Considering the difference of WHO-5score out of 10 , assessed as a clinically significant change in positive wellbeing , at almost all moments in time frequent changes in the positive well-being were noticed , with either improvement or worsening . Only ten students did not show a clinically significant change in the positive well-being when assessed at two consecutive times , across the entire semester . About 40 % of the students registered a clinically significant worsening of their positive well-being during the written exam period ( at T2 compared to T1 ; at T4 compared to T3 ). Over the entire first semester ( T4 compared to T1 ) almost half of the students registered a clinically significant worsening of their positive well-being ( Table 2 ). With respect to the MDI scores , a statistically significant reduction of well-being was noticed during the first half of the semester teaching period ( at T2 compared to T1 ), that continued afterwards , at a level that was not statistically significant . A subgroup analysis showed that during the written exam period female students ( T2 and T4 ) had a tendency of registering higher MDI scores , meaning higher severity of depression symptoms ( Table 3 ). Classifying students according to the MDI score obtained , there were 6 students in T1 , 8 students in T2 , 13 students in T3 and 17 students in T4 with MDI scores ≥ 20 , regarded as having depression . Consequently , the ratio between mild to moderate to severe depression was the following : 2:3:1 in T1 ; 3:3:2 in T2 ; 7:2:4 in T3 ; 7:5:5 in T4 . Prediction of subjective well-