Fatores associados à ansiedade em acadêmicos de odontologia durante a pandemia da covid-19.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and the need for social isolation have had an unexpected impact on many areas of society. In dentistry, the impact has been quite pronounced, given that professionals and university students in this area are the most exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which hampers practical and clinical activities, affecting the progress of the course and accentuating uncertainties about the future, which may have influenced the increase in students' anxiety levels. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyze which factors are associated with anxiety in dental students of a Brazilian Higher Education Institution. This study had a cross- sectional design and data collection by the snowball method, where forms formatted in Microsoft Forms were sent to the study population by e-mail, Whatsapp and Instagram. The dependent variable was assessed by the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and the independent variables were sociodemographic, academic, behavioral, and pandemic-related characteristics, in addition to fear of Covid-19 assessed by the Fear Scale of Covid-19 (FSC-19). Data were analyzed by descriptive-analytical statistics, using the bivariate Chi-square, Fisher's Exact, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and Spearman correlation tests, both with a 95% confidence level. A total of 207 students with a mean age of 22.11±2.51 participated in the survey of which 72.9% showed clinical signs and symptoms of anxiety, thus having a moderate or severe level. Women presented statistically more anxiety than men, as well as income, time of social network use and Covid-19 fear were associated with anxiety. It was also found that the lower the income or the period these students were, the higher was the anxiety score. Also, the higher the level of Covid-19 fear, the higher the anxiety levels. Thus, anxiety was associated with socioeconomic, behavioral, emotional and pandemic-related factors, as well as correlated with an academic factor, thus verifying the need for greater institutional efforts to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on students' mental health.