Stress Level of Dental and Medical Students: Comparison of Effects of a Subject-Based Curriculum versus a Case-Based Integrated Curriculum

The aim of this study was to investigate the stress level of medical and dental students at Kuwait University after a case-based integrated curriculum replaced the former subject-based curriculum. A modified version of the Dental Environment Stress questionnaire was used to measure possible stressors for both medical and dental students. The investigators administered the questionnaire for the first time in 2008, when Kuwait University medical and dental schools followed a subject-based curriculum (group A). The same questionnaire was administered for a second time in 2014, when both medical and dental schools had adopted a case-based integrated curriculum (group B). A total of 345 fifth- and sixth-year medical and dental students responded to the questionnaire (group A=187, group B=158), with an overall 83% response rate. The results showed that, for both the dental and medical students, changing to a case-based integrated curriculum raised the stress level for most of the stressors evaluated. "Inconsistency of feedback on work between different instructors," "difficulties in communicating with teaching staff," "amount of assigned class work," and "examinations and grades" were some of the statistically significant stressors for group B students. Female students reported higher levels of stress than male students in both groups. These results suggest that introducing stress management education into the case-based integrated dental and medical curricula could enhance students' psychological well-being.