Associations between fear of COVID-19, dental anxiety, and psychological distress among Iranian adolescents

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Tofangchiha, M, Lin, C-Y, Scheerman, JFM, Broström, A, Ahonen, H, Griffiths, MD ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8880-6524, Kumar Tadakamadla, S and Pakpour, AH, 2022. Associations between fear of COVID-19, dental anxiety, and psychological distress among Iranian adolescents. BDJ Open, 8: 19. ISSN 2056-807X

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41405-022-00112-w

Abstract

Objectives: The present study evaluated the association of fear of COVID-19 with dental anxiety, oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL), and psychological distress (depression, anxiety and stress), as well as exploring the mediating role of dental anxiety in the association of fear of COVID-19 with OHRQoL and psychological distress.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among adolescents in high schools of Qazvin city (Iran) from March-June 2021, recruited through a two-stage cluster sampling method. All the adolescents completed a self-administered survey assessing (i) fear of COVID-19, (ii) depression, anxiety and stress, (iii) OHRQoL, and (iv) dental anxiety. Structural equation modelling was used to evaluate all the hypothesised associations, and the model fit was estimated.

Results: A total of 2429 adolescents participated in the study. The conceptual model fitted the data well. Fear of COVID-19 had a direct effect on dental anxiety (B = 0.316; bias-corrected bootstrapping 95% CI = 0.282, 0.349), depression (B = 0.302; bias-corrected bootstrapping 95% CI = 0.259, 0.347), anxiety (B = 0.289; bias-corrected bootstrapping 95% CI = 0.246, 0.334), stress (B = 0.282; bias-corrected bootstrapping 95% CI = 0.237, 0.328), and OHRQoL (B = −0.354; bias-corrected bootstrapping 95% CI = −0.530, −0.183). Also, dental anxiety mediated the association of fear of COVID-19 with depression, anxiety stress, and OHRQoL.

Conclusions: High levels of fear of COVID-19 were associated with high levels of dental anxiety and poorer OHRQoL. Moreover, fear of COVID-19 was positively associated with anxiety, depression and stress. Increased levels of dental anxiety were also associated with increased anxiety, stress, depression, and poorer OHRQoL.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	BDJ Open
Creators:	Tofangchiha, M., Lin, C.-Y., Scheerman, J.F.M., Broström, A., Ahonen, H., Griffiths, M.D., Kumar Tadakamadla, S. and Pakpour, A.H.
Publisher:	Springer Nature
Date:	27 June 2022
Volume:	8
ISSN:	2056-807X
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1038/s41405-022-00112-w DOI 1562620 Other
Rights:	© The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	01 Jul 2022 11:17
Last Modified:	01 Jul 2022 11:17
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/46538