Assessment of Anxiety and Depression among Dental Practitioners-An Exploratory Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Dentists face a great deal of professional stress, in the dental school as well as in clinical practice. Their personal, as well as professional lives, get affected negatively by the stress and poor mental health. Aim: To assess the prevalence of anxiety and depression among dentists practicing in Ghaziabad city of Uttar Pradesh, India. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 242 registered dentists in Ghaziabad city. Data regarding demographic, work-related characteristic, lifestyle and self-reported physical and mental status was collected. Mental status was measured through prevalidated questionnaire Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and the Zung Self- Rating Depression Scale (SDS). Data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 16.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) and descriptive statistics and Pearson Chi-square test were used (p< 0.05). Results: Of the 242 dentists, only one dentist did not respond to the questionnaire thus generating the response rate of 99.5%. The prevalence of anxiety and depression among dentist was found to be 44.4% and 36.9% respectively. Almost all sociodemographic (except gender), work-related characteristics (except frequency of conflicts and working hours per week), lifestyle were significantly associated with anxiety symptoms (p< 0.05) and demographic characteristics like marital status, years of experience, lifestyle, income per month, additional source of income were significantly also associated with depression (p< 0.05). Conclusion: Dentists are prone to stress which leads to further anxiety and depression. Stress coping strategies should be included in dental education curriculum to tackle these forms of tensions which indirectly improves their professional abilities and personal life