STRESS SYMPTOMS, STRESSORS AND COPING STRATEGIES IN FIRST YEAR SOUTH INDIAN MEDICAL STUDENTS

Abstract

Everyone suffers from one or other form stress. But how does our medical student fare in this aspect when they enter this vast, ever expanding and demanding field of medicine. This is our small step to look from eyes of our student. The aim of this study was to enumerate the stress symptoms experienced, followed by evaluating the causes of stress and coping strategies in south Indian medical students. A cross-sectional study was performed on first year medical students at Melmaruvathur Adhiparasakthi institute of medical sciences, Melmaruvathur, Tamilnadu. A total of 141 students were participating in the study; semi structured questionnaire was designed, and they have to grade them in order of which they experienced first. One-way ANOVA for symptoms of stress, causes and coping strategies and Independent Samples Test- Levene's Test for Equality of Variances was used to find out the difference between hostilities and days scholars. Symptom of Fatigue/weakness is more in boys than the girls <0.018; home sickness was more in girls than boys<0.002, the coping strategies like taking rest, involving in sports and cultural programs; self-isolation was significantly more in boys than girls. Hostilities are having more low moods compare to days scholars <0.025, coping strategy is by listening to music<0.01 . Medical students will be having different types of causes for their stress, so medical faculties need to be aware of these problems and identify and deal with them as soon as possible.