Association of extracurricular activities and burnout among students in a dental teaching institution in India

• Main Authors: Yeturu Sravan Kumar (Author), Venkitachalam Ramanarayanan (Author), Radhu Rajesh (Author), Soniyamma Therasa V Francis (Author), Shanmugapriya Ganesan (Author), S Vijay Kumar (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications, 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 2319-5932; 2350-0484; 10.4103/jiaphd.jiaphd_95_21
• Keywords: burnout; dental; leisure activities; students; syndrome; Dentistry; RK1-715
• Source: Journal of Indian Association of Public Health Dentistry, Vol 19, Iss 4, Pp 294-298 (2021)

Background: Burnout syndrome (BS) is related to work and is generally seen among health-care professionals including students. Students use various coping mechanisms to deal with stress and burnout and extracurricular activities are one among them. Aim: The aim of the study is to assess the burnout levels of dental students and its association with the indulgence in extracurricular activities (ECA). Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted among students of a deemed university dental school in south India. All the students from 1st year to 5th year (internship), both regular and supplementary batches were included. Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey was used to assess burnout which consists of 15 items on three domains emotional exhaustion (EE), cynicism (CY), and professional efficacy (PE). All the responses were scored on a five point Likert scale. Mann-Whitney U-test and Poisson log-linear model were used. A P ≤ 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: A total of 208 participants were included in the final analyses. Majority of the participants were females (84.1%) and 1st-year students (26.4%). The mean age of the participants was 20.6 ± 1.8 years. The prevalence of BS was 19.7%. A significant difference was seen for the participation in ECA and all the three domains (EE, CY, PE) of BS (P values 0.029, 0.004 and 0.006, respectively). Conclusion: The prevalence of burnout can be considered as high among the participants. Early screening for burnout in dental students and effective interventions at earlier stages is required.