Assessment of Stress and its Determinants among Indian Medical Undergraduate Students of North India

Abstract

Background: Medical Education curriculum is considered to be one of the toughest across the world.The long duration of course along with frequent assessments done make it stressful journey for medicalstudents. Assessment of stress and its determinants among medical students is of utmost importance so thatcorrectable actions can be taken.Objective: Assessment of stress and its underlying causes among Indian Medical Undergraduate Students.Material and Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study carried among 380 MBBS (Undergraduate)students of Government Medical College of North India to explore various stress determinants (Stressors)which were categorized into 6 domains viz. Academic Related Stressors (ARS), Intrapersonal andInterpersonal Related Stressors (IRS),Teaching and Learning-Related Stressors (TLRS), Social RelatedStressors (SRS), Drive and Desire Related Stressors (DRS) and Group Activities Related Stressors (GARS).Data collection was carried out for a period of 3 month and self-administrated validated MSSQ questionnairewas used as a Data tool. Data entered and analyzed with SPSS software.Result: 31% medical students suffers from Severe and 56% medical students suffers from moderateAcademic Stress. 40% medical students have documented that Teaching and Learning Method as a sourceof Moderate stress. Academic related stress and Social related Stress has significant association among bothgender when compared with 1st, 3rd and 5th Semester curriculum. Father’s Education status of a FemaleStudent and their Residence has significant association with Academic related stress. Mother occupation and1st, 3rd and 5th Semester Curriculum has significant association with Teaching Related stress.Conclusion: Stress exists in various domains and with variable intensity during whole MBBS course.