Psychological well-being and burnout amongst medical students in India: a report from a nationally accessible survey

Sharad Philip,Santosh K Chaturvedi,Lauren Barklie,Dinesh Bhugra,Andrew Molodynski

doi:10.1186/s43045-021-00129-1

Abstract

BackgroundMedical students in India face multiple challenges and sources of stress during their training. No nationally representative survey has yet been undertaken. We undertook a cross-sectional national survey to assess substance use, psychological well-being, and burnout using CAGE, Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI), and the short General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). The survey was open to all medical students in India. Descriptive statistics along with chi square tests and Spearman’s correlation were performed.ResultsBurnout was reported by 86% of respondents for disengagement and 80% for exhaustion. Seventy percent had a score of more than 2 on the GHQ-12, indicating caseness.ConclusionsThis study reveals that medical students are going through exceptional stress when compared to their age-matched peers. More nationally representative studies must be conducted on a large scale to quantify the problem and to help design new interventions.

Highlights

Medical students in India face multiple challenges and sources of stress during their training
Our study reports a nationally accessible large-scale survey on the well-being of medical students in India
We conducted an online survey amongst medical student communities in India as part of a larger international effort to understand the stresses of medical student life

Summary

Introduction

Medical students in India face multiple challenges and sources of stress during their training. We undertook a cross-sectional national survey to assess substance use, psychological well-being, and burnout using CAGE, Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI), and the short General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). Medical students are prone to anxiety, depressive disorders, and high levels of psychological distress [2,3,4,5,6,7]. Such issues may progress to negatively impact academic performance, predispose to substance use, and/or encourage other maladaptive coping strategies [4, 8, 9]. Described as including reduced personal accomplishment, depersonalization, and emotional exhaustion, it is considered to be a health issue arising in the context of poorly managed workplace stress

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion