KNOWLEDGE, AWARENESS OF SOCIOPHOBIA AMONG PRECLINICAL UNDERGRADUATE DENTAL STUDENTS- A QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY

Introduction: Sociophobia is one of the most prevalent phobias among students.It is one of the main reasons for the role impairment of students possessing it. This is a fast-growing disorder that is thought to disproportionately affect young people. Social Phobia is the fear of socialising with people and the fear of being judged by common people. Aim: To assess the prevalence and awareness of social phobia among dental students in a private dental college. Materials and methods: A self-designed questionnaire with 15 questions was prepared and circulated among the dental students of private dental colleges in Chennai An online e-questionnaire was prepared and the responses were collected and statistically analysed in the IBM SPSS version 23.0, the statistical analysis was done using descriptive statistics. Results: Moderate and severe levels of sociophobia was observed in 2nd-year students with a total of 23% and 4% respectively, while the 4th years recorded the least with 1% and 0% respectively. Conclusion: From the study, we can conclude that first-year students were the ones with more social phobia than the 4th year students, this may be due to the fact that 1st years being freshers are away from home for the first time while fourth years are more experienced handling social situations.