Stress study in 1st year medical students

Abstract

As stress is a very common feature in medical students, we performed a cross-sectional study in 1 st year medical students to know the prevalence of stress in students, severity of stress & to find the symptoms associated with stress. A pre-designed & pre-tested questionnaire was distributed to 60 students (31 girls & 29 boys) randomly selected. After analyzing the data in the questionnaires, we found that major cases of stress were stress of school performance, stress of school/leisure conflict, stress of future uncertainty and stress due to other factors, all of which were reported by more than 85% of all the students. We also found that stress of future uncertainty & stress of school/leisure conflict is responsible for mild stress in all students. Stress of school performance & stress of future uncertainty is responsible for moderate stress in all students. Stress of other factors is responsible for severe in all students. Many of the students suffered from symptoms like poor concentration, restlessness, mood changes, decreased appetite, palpitations etc. Thus our study shows high prevalence of stress in undergraduate medical students.