Riyadh Colleges of Dentistry and Pharmacy, P.O. Box 84891, Riyadh 11681, Saudi Arabia.
J Dent Educ. 2011 Mar;75(3):377-84.
The aims of this study were to identify the perceived sources of stress in final-year dental students studying in a private dental school in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, using a modified dental environmental stress (DES) scale and to correlate these findings, at various times in the semester, with the level of acute stress measured with salivary cortisol as a biomarker. A total of forty final-year students were administered a modified DES questionnaire consisting of twenty-five questions to determine the perceived causes of stress. Salivary cortisol levels during the first week of the semester, the final week of clinical training, and one hour before the final didactic examination were assessed. Baseline cortisol levels were significantly lower than the cortisol levels in the clinic, and both these values were significantly lower than the salivary cortisol levels before the examination (p<0.001). Comparison of cortisol levels to the perceived sources of stress and demographic data collected showed that certain discrepancies may exist between the perceived and actual stress felt by dental students at different times in the academic semester.
本研究的目的是使用改良的牙科环境应激量表（DES）来确定在沙特阿拉伯利雅得的一所私立牙科学校学习的最后一年牙科学生感知到的压力源，并在学期的不同时间将这些发现与唾液皮质醇作为生物标志物测量的急性应激水平相关联。共有四十名最后一年的学生接受了一项改良的 DES 问卷，其中包含 25 个问题，以确定感知到的压力源。在学期的第一周、临床培训的最后一周以及期末考试前一小时评估唾液皮质醇水平。基线皮质醇水平明显低于临床中的皮质醇水平，这两个值均明显低于考试前的唾液皮质醇水平（p<0.001）。将皮质醇水平与感知到的压力源和收集的人口统计学数据进行比较表明，在学术学期的不同时间，牙科学生感知到的和实际感受到的压力之间可能存在某些差异。
