Prevalence of Psychosomatic Disorders Among Dental Students with Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis. A Cross-Sectional Study.

Abstract

Aims To determine the prevalence of psychosomatic disorders among dental students with recurrent aphthous stomatitis. MethodA cross-sectional study was performed on 184 dental students with recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS). A p-value cut off point of 0.05 at 95% confident interval (CI) was used to determine statistical significance. Descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted where frequency and proportion were used, to present all categorical variables. Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale questionnaires were used to assess the depression, anxiety, and stress of RAS dental students. The analysis assessed the relationship between RAS among socio-demographic characteristics of depression, anxiety, and stress by using a chi-square test.ResultsThe prevalence of depression was dominant among dental students at 62.5%. More than half of the respondents (58.2%) were anxious, whereas the prevalence of stress was lower i.e. 40.2%. There was no significant relationship found between depression and RAS (p>0.05).ConclusionAge group in years and number of ulcers in each occurrence were statistically associated for anxiety and stress, and gender was also significant to anxiety. There was no significant relationship found between depression and RAS.