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Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Academic Activity and Health Status among Romanian Medical Dentistry Students; A Cross-Sectional Study

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, dental faculties had to rethink their way of teaching and interacting with students and of delivering solid theoretical knowledge and practical skills to students. Background: The purpose of the study was to assess dentistry students’ opinions about th...

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Autores principales: Iurcov, Raluca, Pop, Lavinia-Maria, Iorga, Magdalena
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8200025/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34199729
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18116041
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author Iurcov, Raluca
Pop, Lavinia-Maria
Iorga, Magdalena
author_facet Iurcov, Raluca
Pop, Lavinia-Maria
Iorga, Magdalena
author_sort Iurcov, Raluca
collection PubMed
description During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, dental faculties had to rethink their way of teaching and interacting with students and of delivering solid theoretical knowledge and practical skills to students. Background: The purpose of the study was to assess dentistry students’ opinions about the online activity, together with a self-evaluation of their mental and physical health, during the first wave of the pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using an online survey. Three hundred and three students, enrolled across all six years of study, were included in the research. Socio-demographic and academic data were collected, along with a self-evaluation of physical and mental status. Some items investigated students’ opinions about distance learning and the impact of that online activity on their achievement. The answers were rated using a five-item Likert-like scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS (v.24). Results: statistical analyses showed that more than 20% of the students strongly agreed with the statement that they felt more anxious and depressed during the first months of the pandemic, and more than 30% were totally satisfied with their relationships with their family members. One-fifth of the respondents declared that they were totally dissatisfied with the relationships with their colleagues and friends. Overall, 50.60% of the students attended the courses/labs in their entirety when they were connected online. Two-thirds of the respondents considered that their practical training was affected due to the online activity, and that not all of the subjects could be taught online. More than half of the respondents agreed that the most objective evaluation method is that of the multiple-choice exams administered at school, and considered that exclusively utilizing online assessments of students encourages unethical behaviors. Age, involvement in online activity, and active participation using video cameras were strongly correlated with satisfaction with academic results. Conclusions: The results of the present study showed that online activity was a good alternative for dentistry students during the pandemic restrictions. The positive aspects, together with the negative consequences, of distance learning should also be taken into consideration by university teachers and academic institutions to improve teaching experiences and to ensure a solid professional formation for dentistry students.
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spelling pubmed-82000252021-06-14 Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Academic Activity and Health Status among Romanian Medical Dentistry Students; A Cross-Sectional Study Iurcov, Raluca Pop, Lavinia-Maria Iorga, Magdalena Int J Environ Res Public Health Article During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, dental faculties had to rethink their way of teaching and interacting with students and of delivering solid theoretical knowledge and practical skills to students. Background: The purpose of the study was to assess dentistry students’ opinions about the online activity, together with a self-evaluation of their mental and physical health, during the first wave of the pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using an online survey. Three hundred and three students, enrolled across all six years of study, were included in the research. Socio-demographic and academic data were collected, along with a self-evaluation of physical and mental status. Some items investigated students’ opinions about distance learning and the impact of that online activity on their achievement. The answers were rated using a five-item Likert-like scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS (v.24). Results: statistical analyses showed that more than 20% of the students strongly agreed with the statement that they felt more anxious and depressed during the first months of the pandemic, and more than 30% were totally satisfied with their relationships with their family members. One-fifth of the respondents declared that they were totally dissatisfied with the relationships with their colleagues and friends. Overall, 50.60% of the students attended the courses/labs in their entirety when they were connected online. Two-thirds of the respondents considered that their practical training was affected due to the online activity, and that not all of the subjects could be taught online. More than half of the respondents agreed that the most objective evaluation method is that of the multiple-choice exams administered at school, and considered that exclusively utilizing online assessments of students encourages unethical behaviors. Age, involvement in online activity, and active participation using video cameras were strongly correlated with satisfaction with academic results. Conclusions: The results of the present study showed that online activity was a good alternative for dentistry students during the pandemic restrictions. The positive aspects, together with the negative consequences, of distance learning should also be taken into consideration by university teachers and academic institutions to improve teaching experiences and to ensure a solid professional formation for dentistry students. MDPI 2021-06-04 /pmc/articles/PMC8200025/ /pubmed/34199729 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18116041 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Iurcov, Raluca
Pop, Lavinia-Maria
Iorga, Magdalena
Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Academic Activity and Health Status among Romanian Medical Dentistry Students; A Cross-Sectional Study
title Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Academic Activity and Health Status among Romanian Medical Dentistry Students; A Cross-Sectional Study
title_full Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Academic Activity and Health Status among Romanian Medical Dentistry Students; A Cross-Sectional Study
title_fullStr Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Academic Activity and Health Status among Romanian Medical Dentistry Students; A Cross-Sectional Study
title_full_unstemmed Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Academic Activity and Health Status among Romanian Medical Dentistry Students; A Cross-Sectional Study
title_short Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Academic Activity and Health Status among Romanian Medical Dentistry Students; A Cross-Sectional Study
title_sort impact of covid-19 pandemic on academic activity and health status among romanian medical dentistry students; a cross-sectional study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8200025/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34199729
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18116041
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