Effects of Academic Examination-Related Stress on Cardiopulmonary and Psychological Parameters among Undergraduate Students of University of Lagos

Abstract

Background: Examination is a routine academic event that may cause stress. Mild stress may be beneficial in cognitive tasks and performance while persistently high stress may negatively affect the cardiopulmonary system and also lead to anxiety and depression, which are definable neuropsychiatric disease entities. Objective: This study investigated the effects of academic examination-related stress on cardiopulmonary and psychological parameters of undergraduate students of the University of Lagos. Subjects and Methods: Four hundred and twelve undergraduate students (180 males and 232 females) of the University of Lagos whose ages ranged from 17 to 27 years participated in this cross sectional analytical survey. They were year 2, 3 and 4 students from the Faculties of Basic Medical Sciences, Clinical Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Law and Social Sciences. Test Anxiety Inventory scale was used to assess the major psychological components of subjects while mercury sphygmomanometer, stethoscope and spirometer were used to measure selected cardiopulmonary parameters. Data were obtained during periods of examination and no examination and were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 17. Results: Paired t-test comparison of the mean scores of the cardiopulmonary parameters in all the subjects between periods of examination and no examination showed significant changes in systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, mean arterial pressure, pulse pressure, rate pressure product and respiratory rate (p<0.05). The scores of Test Anxiety Inventory during period of examination were very high in 14.8% subjects and moderately high in 36.2% subjects. Conclusion: Academic examination-related stress significantly affected most of the cardiopulmonary parameters of undergraduate students negatively and brought about high anxiety in over half of them.