The relationship between educational environment and mental health among dentistry students of Tabriz University of Medical Science

Abstract

the dental learning environment is often not satisfactory from the students' point of view, and this dissatisfaction can be related to the increase in the level of stress and anxiety, as well as the occurrence of disorders in the general mental health of students. The present study was conducted with the aim of studying The relationship between educational environment and mental health among dentistry students of Tabriz University of Medical Science. Materials and Methods: This study was carried out in a cross-sectional and analytical way. Dental students studying in Tabriz Dental College were included in the study. The GHQ-12 questionnaire was used to measure the level of mental health and the DREEM questionnaire was used to measure the student's perception of the educational situation. The results were analyzed with SPSS version 27 software. Results: 130 dental students (mean age 22.9 ± 3.7 years, 55.4% male) were included in the study. The average mental health score of students was 19.03 ± 6.9 out of 36. The overall average score of the DREEM model was 89.4 ± 26.2 out of 200; So that 60% of the educational quality has been described as semi-optimal, 32.3% as optimal, 6.9% as unfavorable and 0.8% as very favorable. Students' mental health and their level of satisfaction with the educational environment has significantly decreased with increasing educational level (P<0.001). Also, with the increase in satisfaction with the educational environment (increase in DREEM score), the level of mental health of students has also increased (decrease in GHQ-12 score) (r=-0.595, P<0.001).