The impact of stress and its influencing factors among dentists during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kingdom of Bahrain

Background: It is well known that all medical professions are linked to work stress, including dentistry, which is seen as facing higher risk due to the nature of the job, especially the working conditions. 

Objective: This study aimed to assess the impact of stress and its influencing factors among dentists during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bahrain.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was designed to assess the impact of stress and its influencing factors among Bahraini dentists. A total of 306 participants were randomly selected from 1489 registered professionals in the NHRA (National Health Regulatory Authority Bahrain). In addition, an online survey was used to minimise face-to-face communication as well as to accommodate dental practitioners who work in private and government hospitals in Bahrain and a convenient sample of dentists was requested to participate in this study.

Results: Out of 306 participants invited in the survey, only 253 responded, which was adequate for the study. Overall, the participants have reported moderate stress. All the variables of the study showed different effects, but the highest stressor with a strong correlation was "fear of social isolation "(FI) at the significance level of 0.01 (β= 0.393, t= 5.090, p < 0.05= (0.000) with = 0.201 above 0.15 and less than 0.35 which was considered as a moderate effect size approximately (20%), which strongly supported the hypothesis that researchers have proposed. Overall, the total effect for all stressors were (30 %) which was considered as a moderate effect size. All hypotheses were supported except BCP -> OUTCOME due to insufficient evidence at the insignificant level of 0.01 (β= -0.184, t=1.560, p > 0.05 = (0.060). whereas the R² values of independent variables were above 95% for the variance of dentists' outcome, which is considered an excellent fit to the data as evidenced by the squared multiple correlations ( ) values for the dependent variables.

Conclusions: The study is unique based on its findings that reveal the impact of stress among dentists. Moreover, the results of this study may serve as guidance for future monitoring of dental practitioners' burnout, anxiety, and workload. Furthermore, it may provide supports in different aspects.