Abstract
Introduction
The current situation characterized by a pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) establishes this public health crisis as a global calamity, due to the increased virulence and higher transmissibility of this new variant of the CoV virus, a factor which is triggering major anxiety disorders, not only in the general population, but also among health professionals.
Objective
To analyze the levels of anxiety in professors of the Dentistry Course at the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES) during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Material and method
This is a cross-sectional study, in which anxiety levels were evaluated according to the presence of symptoms in 48 professors of the Dentistry course at UFES who answered two self-administered questionnaires: the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) scale and another survey that aimed to identify the sociodemographic profile of the participants, the present study was conducted from August 30, 2020 to October 30, 2020. Descriptive statistics, chi-squared and Fisher's exact tests were used to analyze the associations between the variables as well as the odds ratio.
Result
The results showed that most professors - n=20, (41.7%) - do experience at least one level of anxiety and symptoms related to this condition, albeit, without statistically significant differences.
Conclusion
It appears that in the face of current demands, we need to stimulate the construction of critical thinking so that people may learn to live in society as conscious, thoughtful and proactive individuals, furthermore, it is essential that they are both physically and mentally healthy.
Descriptors:
Coronavirus; dentistry professors; anxiety