A Survey on Happiness as a Component of Mental Health in Kerman Dental Students in 2017-2018: A Short Report

Background and Objectives: Happiness is one of the basic human needs and a component of mental health which is the cause of increase of social capital. The aim of this study was to investigate the status of happiness in students of Kerman Dental School. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study, the statistical population included students of Kerman Dental School in the academic year 2017-2018. Oxford Happiness Questionnaire was used to collect data and 241 students who were selected randomly with the proportionate stratification method participated in the study. Data analysis was performed using Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis H tests. Results: 151 (62.7%) of the students were girls and 90 (37.3%) were boys. The mean score of student's happiness was 40.04±0.78. Students' happiness status in different demographic variables such as gender (p=0.779), academic year (p=0.092), marital status (p=0.865) and residence (p=0.425) did not show any significant difference. Conclusion: The happiness status of Kerman Dental students was at an acceptable level, but necessary measures must be taken to upgrade it to the excellent level. Key words: Happiness, Dental students, Mental health, Kerman   Funding: This research was funded by Vice Chancellor for Research, Kerman University of Medical Sciences. Conflict of interest: None declared. Ethical Approval: The Ethics Committee of Kerman University of Medical Sciences approved the study (IR.KMU.REC.1395.405).   How to cite this article: Fardisi S, Raoof M, Ghazizadeh M, Amanpour S. A Survey on Happiness as a Component of Mental Health in Kerman Dental Students in 2017-2018: A Short Report. J Rafsanjan Univ Med Sci 2020; 19 (3): 305-14. [Farsi]