Understanding the health risks in basic science medical students: a cross sectional survey.

Darien Merchant,Jyothi Sathuluri,Sateesh Babu Arja,Yogesh Acharya,Anastasia Anoshina,Asia Manzoor

doi:10.15694/mep.2020.000067.1

Abstract

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Background Medical students are usually subjected to a high workload environment and stress is one of the most important health risks that medical students encounter. The negative impact of stress on the student's mental and general health in basic science has often been under reported. Methods and Materials A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was performed in Avalon University School of Medicine (AUSOM), Curacao, amongst the first to fourth semester basic science students with an objective to explore and understand their perspectives on different health risks. ResultsMore than ⅔ of the students (79.61%, n=82) were feeling stressed out during their basic sciences. The mean stress level among the basic science students was 7.42 ± 2.13 (scale:1-10). Common health issues encountered by the students were: sleep problems, impaired concentration, low mood, mood swings, difficulty in making decisions, emotional distress, anxiety, substance abuse, and abnormal weight gain. Conclusion Although lack of sleep and behavioral problems are the most common health issues encountered by the pre-clinical medical students. There is an urgent need to implement health promotion strategies in medical curriculum for mental and physical well-being of the students.

Highlights

Medical school is a stressful time for physicians’ training
In the baseline survey of our study on medical student’s health, we found that most medical students were feeling stressed out in their basic science studies
Sleep problems, impaired concentration, low mood, mood swings, difficulty in making decisions, emotional distress, anxiety, and substance abuse was one of the key findings of our survey, and most of it is likely to be as a result of the academic pressure that each medical student needs to face every day

Summary

Introduction

Medical school is a stressful time for physicians’ training. Medical students' workload is considerably higher than that of many other non-medical students. Medical training has been recognized to account for numerous stressors that can directly affect students’ well-being. Academic pressures include issues, such as overwhelming burden of knowledge, different learning styles and the impact of the learning environment (Dunn, Iglewicz and Moutier, 2008; Firth-Cozens, 2001; Tyssen et al, 2000). Due to the associated stressors, medical students have higher risks of developing certain health conditions such as obesity, stress, anxiety, fatigue, and depression (Voltmer, Kötter and Spahn, 2012). Medical students are usually subjected to a high workload environment and stress is one of the most important health risks that medical students encounter. The negative impact of stress on the student’s mental and general health in basic science has often been under reported

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Discussion

Conclusion