English

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Stress is a part of everyone's life. It is normal for everybody to experience stress to some extent, but too much stress may be harmful. Attending college is a rewarding experience but it also can be a time of considerable anxiety and stress for students. Students are subjected to different kinds of experiences which make them vulnerable to undergo a lot of stress. Of late, there is a growing appreciation of stress in medical professionals including medical students, who have very busy and demanding schedule. Sources of stress are classified into two main groups - academic pressures and non-academic sources including financial problems. There are different coping strategies used by students to manage stress. It is important to understand these strategies and encourage the healthy strategies and discourage the others which are potentially harmful. AIM: to determine the sources of stress in undergraduate medical students and the coping strategies used by these students in managing their stress. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: An institutional cross sectional study among undergraduate students of a medical college in coastal Andhra Pradesh. MATERIAL AND METHODS: After the study protocol was given clearance by the Institution Ethics Committee, consent was taken from the undergraduate medical students of Konaseema Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Foundation, Amalapuram, and a predesigned and pretested questionnaire was given which captured information related to basic demographic details followed by questions related to stress and its sources and also the coping strategies used by these students to manage stress. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The data collected was entered into Microsoft Excel and analyzed using Epi Info 6 software. Chi Square test was done wherever applicable. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Total 431 out of 550 medical students (78.4 percent) participated in the study. There were 261 females and 170 males. 'Academic work load', 'long hours of academic work', 'performance in examinations', 'competition for marks' and 'frequency of examinations' were the leading academic sources of stress. 'Quality of food', 'lack of entertainment in the institution', 'worry about future', 'being away from home' and 'lack of time for recreation' were the leading non-academic sources of stress in the students. 'Emotional support from family/friends', 'listening to music/dancing', 'going to place of worship', 'playing sports/games/physical exercises', and 'watching a movie' were reported as the leading coping strategies used by the study subjects.