Assessment of level of stress and its correlation with blood pressure in medical students

Abstract

Background: Hypertension is a global problem which can lead to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications. Medical education can impose significant psychological stress on undergraduates. Considerable degree of psychological morbidity has been reported among medical students ranging from stress, interpersonal problems and suicidal ideation to psychiatric disorders and they tend to have greater psychological distress than general population. Stress is one of the factors known to cause variation in blood pressure (BP). Maintaining normal BP is essential for well-being of an individual. Aims and Objectives: To assess the level of stress and to correlate stress level with BP in medical students. Materials and Methods: BP was recorded using sphygmomanometer, in the sitting posture after 5 min of rest (n = 92). Three readings were taken, and the average was considered. The medical student stressor questionnaire (MSSQ) is a validated instrument used to identify sources of stress in medical students. The items in MSSQ represent 20 possible sources of stress in medical students identified from the literature grouped into six main domains. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS Version 23. Descriptive statistics of the study participants were done. Pearson correlation was done to find the correlation between stress domains and BP levels. Results: Medical students have mild to moderate degree of stress. There was a statistically significant correlation between diastolic BP (DBP), academic-related stressors (ARS), and group activities related stressor (GARS) (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Among the six domains of MSSQ, ARS and GARS have shown significant correlation with DBP. Hence, proactive measures have to be taken to address the issue of stress in medical students and to prevent the progression of elevated BP to hypertensive levels, to prevent complications related to hypertension for well-being of the students.