Depression, anxiety and stress (according to DASS-21 test results) among students of Vinnytsya national medical university

Abstract

Annotation. The military events in Ukraine (2022-2023 years), the economic and social changes closely related to them led to an increase in the level of social tension, social anxiety, and the appearance of stress among the Ukrainian population. The purpose of this study is to assess level of anxiety, depression and stress in Ukrainian medical students. The DASS-21 questionnaire (Ukrainian language version) was used to investigate 374 medical students of the II-III years of study in Vinnytsya National Medical University (the average age 19.47±0.11 years, boys – 148, girls – 226). Testing was carried out in the territory where there are no military operations, in the non-sessional period. The test results were statistically processed using the statistical analysis package of the Microsoft Excel program. It was found that there are only 67 medical students who have normative values of the DASS-21 test (17.91±1.98%). Depression of varying degrees (from mild to very severe) occurs in 198 (52.94±2.58%) students, stress is detected in 190 (50.80±2.59%) people, and anxiety in 240 (64.17±2.48%). Statistically significant gender differences in the results of the DASS-21 test are observed, in particular, the percentage of people with depression, anxiety and stress among women is higher than among guys (respectively, p˂0.001, p˂0.001, p˂0.01), female students probably more often (compared to boys) feel depressed and moody (p˂0.001), terrified (p˂0.01), close to panic (p˂0.001), or they are disturbed by situations that can cause panic or lead to deception (р˂0.001), they spend a lot of nervous energy (р˂0.001), feel low self-esteem as individuals (р˂0.01), loss of initiative (р˂0.05), the ability to feel something positive in general (p˂0.05), are too sensitive (p˂0.001), worried, excited (p˂0.01). Thus, in the difficult socio-economic conditions of the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, there is widespread depression, anxiety and stress among students, studying in a higher medical institution in Ukraine, not in a combat zone. It is advisable to analyse the strategies for getting out of stressful situations used by modern students, assess their suicidal risks, and widely promote psycho-relaxing techniques and the most optimal strategies for overcoming stress among medical students.