Investigating the Relationship Between Occupational Stress and Demographic Variables in Dentists

Abstract

Background: Today, one of the most important factors threatening everyone is stress. Objectives: Considering the problems caused by stress in people’s careers and the fact that dentistry has been introduced as a stressful profession, the purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between occupational stress and demographic variables among dentists in Khorramabad, Iran, in 2022. Methods: The current research is a cross-sectional analytical study. Of the 120 working dentists, 92 were enrolled in the study according to the inclusion criteria. Of these, 28.3% were women and 71.7% were men. The data collection instrument was Osipow’s Occupational Stress Inventory. The researcher completed the questionnaires by referring to dentists’ offices. All statistical tests were performed using SPSS version 25, with P < 0.05 as the significance level. Results: The findings showed that the average occupational stress in dentists was 184.01 ± 9.88, showing that 89.1% of dentists had moderate to severe stress and 10.9% had severe stress. The average occupational stress was 180.42 ± 6.35 in women and 185.42 ± 10.68 in men. Thus, the level of occupational stress in men was significantly higher than that of women (P = 0.007). In addition, 2 variables (age and workplace) had a significant relationship with the level of occupational stress of dentists (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Since most dentists participating in this study had moderate to severe stress, knowing the sources of stress and ways to deal with them can help reduce fatigue and increase job performance among dentists.