Beyond the Bite: Exploring Mental Health of Dental Faculty in Pakistan- a multi-institutional study.

Introduction: Mental health issues are being reported increasingly amongst healthcare staff and students globally. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of common mental health issues amongst dental faculty members at multiple institutions in Pakistan.

Methods: Following approval from the institutional ethics review board, dental faculty members at 14 dental institutions were invited to participate in an online survey based on globally validated scales for mental health problems including the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21). Two open-ended questions were included in the survey to identify perceived factors contributing to poor mental health and recommendations for improving institutional support.

Results: A total of 200 faculty members out of provided their responses to the survey questionnaire but complete responses were provided by 183 participants which included 120 (65.57%) females, and 63 (34.43%) males. The total number of faculty members at the participating institutions was 426 and 183 responses translated into an overall response rate of 43%. Most participants were in the 31-40 years age-group (n = 81, 44.26%) followed by 25-30 year (n = 51, 22.87%) and 41-50 years (n = 40, 21.86%). The mean score on PHQ-9 was 6.51 (SD ± 5.4) while the mean DASS-21 score was 13.04 (SD ± 10.95). PHQ-9 Depression, and DASS-21 Depression, Anxiety, and Stress scores were all significantly positively correlated for the whole sample, and within each subgroup of each demographic factor. Job-related workload, lack of institutional support, financial limitations, and poor work life balance were identified as the main factors contributing adversely to the mental health of the participants.

Discussion: This study provides useful insights into the scale of mental health status amongst dental faculty members at 14 institutions in Pakistan. Underlying factors affecting the mental health of faculty members adversely were identified and recommendations are provided to address these challenges.