Anxiety, self-eficacy, and risk perception in dental students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Containment measures by COVID-19 affect lifestyle and social relationships and it is reasonable to expect psychological effects from the thought of becoming infected. In dental practice, psychological reactions have been diverse. To identify anxiety and risk perception due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the self-efficacy of dental students to take preventive measures. Cross-sectional study in students of the School of Dentistry of a public university in northeastern Mexico in May 2020 (n = 412). Online data were collected on anxiety, risk perception and self-efficacy on Likert scale and sociodemographic profile. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression multivariate analysis were used. Results: Mean age was 21.8 ± 2.8 years; 72.1% were female. Twenty-two out of 100 dental students reported feeling anxious about the COVID-19 pandemic for at least eight days in the last two weeks; risk perception (OR = 2.46, 95%CI 1.75-3.48) and being female (OR = 2.23, 95%CI 1.33-3.76) increased the odds of anxiety. While self-efficacy (OR = 0.71, CI95% 0.51-0.99) and history of COVID-19 training (OR = 0.63, CI95% 0.4-0.99) decreased them. Conclusions: High risk perception and being of the female sex are associated with a significant increase in COVID-19 anxiety.