The Effects of Entrance Examination Stress on Oral Health Behavior and Subjective Oral Health in Female High School Students

Background: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of entrance exam stress on oral health behaviors and subjective oral health status in female high school students. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was administered to 216 female high school students in the Gwangju area. We performed an independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson's correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis using the SPSS/WIN 21.0 program. Results: The average of the entrance exam stress was 2.73, and among the sub-areas, the tension for exam/poor stress was the highest with 3.21. As a result of analysis of general characteristics and subjective oral health status, oral mucosal disease was lower in family income level (p<0.05), bad breath was significantly higher with lower academic performance (p<0.001) and family income level (p<0.05). As a result of oral health behavior and subjective oral health status analysis, dental caries has more than 4 times of caries snacks (per week) (p<0.05), bad breath was found to be more perceived when the average number of daily brushing was 2 or less (p<0.01). Factors affecting subjective oral health status were that dental caries was a patients pressure stress (β=0.202); temporomandibular disorder (β=0.227), xerostomia (β=0.342), and oral mucosal disease (β=0.190) were insufficient spare time; bad breath was academic performance (lower) (β=0.231) and insufficient spare time (β=0.184). There was a statistically significant positive correlation between the subjective oral health status and the subarea of entrance exam stress, excluding future uncertainty stress. Conclusion: It is considered that oral health education should be conducted to prevent oral diseases for students with high parental pressure and insufficient spare time stress as well as finding practical ways to reduce entrance stress.