How Stressed are our Postgraduate Medical and Dental Postgraduate Students in Southern Asia? A Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Stress has been quite commonly reported in the literature among medical and dental students due to the nature of their work. AIM: To assess the level of stress among medical and dental postgraduates in various medical and dental Colleges in Southern Asia.MATERIALS AND METHOD: The study was cross-sectional in nature and conducted among 809 medical and dental postgraduates. Stress was measured using the Cohen’s Perceived stress scale-14 (PSS-14) online through google forms (convenience sampling). Data was entered in MS Excel and descriptive statistics was applied followed by the independent samples t-test, post-hoc modified Bonferroni test and Odd’s Ratio (OR) using SPPS version 22.0.8 Statistical significance was set at 5% (p<0.05).RESULTS: There were 342 (41.3%) medical and 467 (58.7%) dental postgraduates. Most medical postgraduates (73%) reported stress as “severe”, while among dental postgraduates, most of them(32.5%) reported having “mild” stress (p=0.03). Among both medical and dental postgraduates, the third year of their postgraduation was found to be most stressful and the association was found to be significant (p=0.04*, OR:1.5). Unmarried postgraduates among both groups reported having most stress and the association was non-significant (OR: 1.1).CONCLUSION: Both medical and dental postgraduates are requested to practice stress relieving exercises and ask for help if the need arises so.