Prevalence of psychosomatic disorders among dental students with recurrent aphthous stomatitis
Author(s): Saud F. Alhazzaa*
Abstract
Aim: Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of psychosomatic disorders among dental students with recurrent aphthous stomatitis and to assess the level of association Method: This is a cross-sectional study of 184 dental students with Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis (RAS) who were at Riyadh Elm University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The data analysis was performed by using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences version 21. 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 analyses assessed the relationship between RAS among sociodemographic characteristics of depression, anxiety, and stress by using a chi-square test. Results: Age range of participants was from 20 to 54 years. Of the 184 respondents, 55.4% were females and the remainder was males. Depression was prevalent among 62.5% of dental students. More than half of the respondents (58.2%) were anxious, whereas the prevalence of stress was lower at 40.2%. There was no significant relationship found between depression and RAS. Conclusion: Age 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.