Prevalence of stress and its association with vitamin D status in undergraduate medical students

Abstract

Background: Medical education is considered to be the most stressful learning process globally. Stress can have a negative impact on the academic performance and psychosocial well-being of the students. Perceived stress scale-10 (PSS-10) is a useful tool to assess mental stress. Being involved in the neurotransmitter systems in the brain; vitamin D may have a role in the perception of stress. Hence, finding any association between stress and vitamin D will help us to address stress suitably. Aims and Objectives: The aims and objectives were to assess the prevalence of stress in medical undergraduates and to find its association with vitamin D levels in the body. Materials and Methods: The perception of stress was assessed in 79 students of age between 18 and 21 years using the PSS-10. A total score above 14 is considered moderate to high stress. The serum vitamin D was measured by the chemiluminescent immunoassay technique. Spearman’s correlation coefficient was used to assess the correlation between stress and vitamin D. Results: About 86% of the students showed moderate to high stress with females having a significantly high stress (P = 0.002) compared to males. About 87% of females and 91% of males were having hypovitaminosis D with no gender association. Even though vitamin D was negatively correlated with stress, the association was not statistically significant with P = 0.5. Conclusion: The study shows a high prevalence of stress and hypovitaminosis in medical students. However, vitamin D is not associated with the perception of stress.