An Insight into Spiritual Health and Coping Tactics among Dental Students; A Gain or Blight: A Cross-sectional Study
ZC33-ZC38
Correspondence
Dr. Kuldeep Dhama,
Tutor, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Divya Jyoti College of Dental Sciences and Research, Niwari Road,
Modinagar-201204, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
E-mail: dhama.viccky50@gmail.com
Introduction: Spiritual health is the youngest dimension of health which affects the coping skills of the individual and may help the dental students who are the caregivers of the future, to overcome crisis situation with time.
Aim: To measure the association between spiritual health and coping skills among the dental students of private dental college.
Materials and Methods: A questionnaire based cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the spiritual health status using Spiritual Health Assessment Scale (SHAS) and coping skills using Adolescent Coping Orientation for Problem Experiences (ACOPE) scale among the 389 dental students of different academic years in a private dental college. The data obtained was subjected to descriptive statistics and means were compared using independent t-test and one-way ANOVA.
Results: The mean age of the study participants was 22.8±3.17 years. Majority of the students had fair spiritual health score (74.55%). Of the coping strategies dimension, highest mean score was observed in seeking diversions (3.60±1.40) and the least mean score was observed in engaging in demanding activities (2.67±1.41). Statistically significant association was seen between dimension of coping behaviour and spiritual health (p= 0.05).
Conclusion: The present study highlights that spiritual health plays a central role and influences the coping strategies in human health. The spiritual health can continuously compensate with other health like mental, physical and social well-being.