A comparative study of stress and mental health among Argentinean and Swedish medical students

Abstract

Background: Studies on medical students’ mental health rarely consider whether generalisability between nationalities is feasible, due to lack of comparative studies between different nationalities. This study aims to shed light on the question by comparing stress and mental health among medical students from Sweden and Argentina.Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. Argentinean (N=397) and Swedish medical students (N=342) received questionnaires on demographic data, alcohol, tobacco and drug use, study stress and depressive symptoms. Parts of the Swedish data were included in a previous study. Measures used were AUDIT-C, HESI (Higher Education Stress Inventory), MDI (Major Depression Inventory) and Meehan’s suicidal history items. Linear regressions were performed to assess associations between Depression scores and individual lifestyle, demographic and study stress variables, controlling for nationality in a second step.Results: Response rates were 77.1% (n=306) among Argentinean students and 90.4% (n=309) among Swedish students. The two populations differed with regard to demographical and lifestyle variables. Argentinean students had higher depression scores, rated peer support as lower and were more worried about the future than Swedish medical students. Associations between depression and study stress differed between the two nationalities. Conclusions: Generalisations from findings in different medical student populations should be made with caution. Studies from a broader selection of nationalities and large-scale comparative studies are called for to identify commonalities and differences within an international population of medical students and professionals