Psychological perturbs among undergraduate medical students of public and private sector universities in Pakistan

Abstract

Background: Most stressing curricula in the world at present is medical science; excess stress among students lead to a decrease in their performance due to physical as well psychological decline. The study under consideration was done for determination of the psychological stress that is perceived by the undergraduate medical students, to identify the stressors causing stress, domains in which it is more prevalent in students of various medical disciplines in Pakistan. Materials and Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study using Medical Students Stressor Questionnaire was carried on a sample of 300 students of various medical disciplines of public and private universities chosen by convenience sampling. Results: Across the various disciplines of medical education, more stress was found in the DPT students and least in the AHS students. The results reported the prevalence of stress 28.5% in DPT students, 24.2% in MBBS students, 23.7% in DHND students, and 23.6% in AHS students. Among the sectors, more stress level was found in public sector university students (77.6%) than private sector students (22.4%). The stressors causing more stress among the undergraduate medical students were identified to be the group activity-related stressor and social activity- related stressor. Conclusion: The study showed that the high prevalence of stress was found to be in the DPT students followed by the MBBS, DHND, and AHS. Stress was more prevalent in public sector medical students as compared to the private sector.