STRESS AND HEALTH BEHAVIOR OF HEALTH PROFESSIONS STUDENTS IN BULGARIA

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of stress among students of various health specialties in Bulgaria and to examine its relationship with the individual and institutional characteristics of the students and with their health behavior. Methods: A survey was conducted among students from all 26 Bachelor and Master of health sciences programmes at a Medical University in Bulgaria. Information on self-assessed levels of health and stress, aspects of the health behavior (physical activity, smoking, alcohol intake, diet and sleep duration), personal (age, gender) and institutional factors (specialty and year of study) was collected with a structured questionnaire. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to evaluate the determinants of the perceived high level of stress. Results: A total of 570 (10% sample) of all students from the university with a mean age of 24 (SD 7.6) years took part in the study. The majority of students (61.7%) experienced a moderate level of stress. Self-reported high level of stress (25.4%) was significantly independently associated with three factors - female gender (OR=2.92, 95% CI=1.09-7.81), low level of self-rated health (OR=6.95, 95% CI=2.17-22.25) and higher (fourth or fifth) year of study compared to first (OR=5.49, 95% CI=1.72-17.59; OR=4.06, 95% CI=1.36-12.16). Conclusions: Stress is an important problem affecting the health of this group of the population. Active actions for building environments conducive to and supporting students' mental health are necessary, for which medical universities are in a very favourable position.