Abstract
Medical students are at increased risk of experiencing mental health problems. Certain personality traits may be associated with elevated vulnerability to study-related stress and poor mental health. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between such personality traits and mental health outcomes among medical students. We drew on cross-sectional data from 251 medical students who had been enrolled for one-year at a medical school in Germany. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8) and suicidal ideation was assessed by item 9 from the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Personality traits were captured using the Business-Focused Inventory of Personality 6 Factors (BIP-6F). Multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to quantify the associations between work-related personality factors and mental health outcomes, controlling for demographic and social factors. Odds ratios (ORs) as outcome measures with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used. After controlling for important confounders, medical students who scored highly on Stability had lower odds of depressive symptoms (OR: 0.19, 95% CI: 0.09–0.42, p < 0.001) and suicidality (OR: 0.38, 95% CI: 0.16–0.87, p < 0.05) than those with high scores in other work-related personality factors. Findings also showed that those who scored highly on Dominance had greater odds of depressive symptoms (OR: 2.46, 95% CI: 1.22–4.97), p < 0.01). Work-related personality-informed interventions, which promote students’ mental well-being and reduce academic stress should be considered at various stages of their medical training.
Highlights
Academic stress among medical students has repeatedly been linked to poorer health outcomes, such as a reduced quality of life [1,2], musculoskeletal complaints [3,4], and depressive and anxiety symptoms [5,6,7]
The present study extends previous research by estimating the prevalence of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation as well as exploring the relationship between work-related personality traits and depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation in a sample of medical students after one-year enrollment
Sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the robustness of the primary results for depression symptoms using PHQ-8. Both primary (PHQ-8) and sensitivity analyses (PHQ-9) showed no marked differences between these two validated scales for depression symptoms in our study. This is the first study examining the association between work-related personality factors with depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation in medical students after one-year enrollment of their training
Summary
Academic stress among medical students has repeatedly been linked to poorer health outcomes, such as a reduced quality of life [1,2], musculoskeletal complaints [3,4], and depressive and anxiety symptoms [5,6,7]. Depression and suicidal ideation are major public health concerns in medical schools. Givens and Tjia [8] found that about one quarter of first and second year medical students showed signs of depression. Another survey carried out by Student BMJ [9] in the UK showed that approximately 30% of medical students had a mental illness or had received treatment. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 1462; doi:10.3390/ijerph15071462 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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