Association between academic burnout and dental environment stress among dental students in Isfahan

Considering the problems associated with occupational stress and burnout caused by this stress, this study aimed to determine the academic burnout, dental environment stress, and their association among dental students in Isfahan.

This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in 2020, applying a convenient sampling method. Data collected from undergraduate dental students from Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Azad University of Isfahan using the validated Persian version of BCSQ-12-SS (Burnout Clinical Subtype Questionnaire) including 12 questions and DES (Dental Environment Stress) including 32 questions. Volunteer students filled in the online questionnaires using social media including WhatsApp and Telegram. Data were analyzed using SPSS26, U Mann-Whitney test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman correlation coefficient, and a linear regression model (level of significance P<0.05).

Among 300 participants (response rate=64%), the mean age was 24.25±2.72, and 54.7% were women. The mean score of academic burnout was 2.61±0.66 of the maximum score of 5. Overload was the most effective dimension of academic burnout. The mean score of DES was 2.80±0.51 of the maximum score of 4. Clinical education was the most effective dimension of DES. A direct correlation was observed between the dental environment stress and academic burnout (P<0.001; r=0.33).

The academic burnout among dental students in Isfahan was moderate and dental environment stress was high. Considering the direct association between the stress and burnout, more efforts should be made to reduce dental environment stress especially in the field of clinical education.