Assessment of stress among first year MBBS students in a tertiary care hospital

 

 

Abstract              Background: Stress is an inevitable part of medical education that cannot be denied. Though a minimal amount of stress is essential to ignite a healthy and competitive spirit, but stress above that minimally accepted amount may affect the students variedly. The present study was done to find out the level of stress among the first year MBBS students. Materials and Methods: this cross sectional study was conducted among 150 first year MBBS students of the Viswabharathi medical college, Kurnool who were in the age group of 17-21 years. The stress level among first year MBBS students was assessed by the k10 score. All the first year MBBS students have answered the questionnaire. Results: The response rate of study was 100% e.g. 150 students out of 150 returned back the filled questionnaire. Prevalence of mild, moderate and severe stress was 39.28%, 21.43% and 3.57% respectively. They were in the age group of 17-21 years and the mean Perceived Stress score was 20.29 (SD = 6.24). The scores were arbitrarily divided, and it was found that 5 students (3%) had no Stress, 28 students (19%) had Low Perceived Stress, 86 students (57%) had Moderate Perceived Stress and 31 students (21%) had High Perceived Stress. Conclusion: the prevalence of stress among first year MBBS students is high. So Our study emphasize on early intervention to cope up stress in medical education system by arranging Counseling sessions for students and arranging mentorship for them.

Keywords: stress, MBBS students

 

INTRODUCTION

Stress is a state of emotional or mental strain resulting in a number of normal bodily reactions to retain self-preservation.¹ Medical education is taken as being stressful. Medical students face multiple anxieties as they transform from an insecure student to a young knowledgeable physician. The stress in medical training is a growing concern these days.² Many studies have shown that medical students face high rate of psychological morbidity at various stages of their taming, specially at the beginning during first year.^3,4,5 First year medical student in particular has just moved from the cocooned environment of his home and college to the unknown, competitive world of medicine. With such changes in the life of a medical student and the immense pressure to perform, there is bound to be huge amounts of stress. This leads to a vicious cycle of poor academic performance, low self-esteem, anxiety, panic attacks and depression.⁶ An optimal level of stress, earlier known as ‘favorable stress’ can enhance learning, but excessive stress can lead to physical and mental health problems reducing the self-esteem of the students.^7,8 Thus, the present study was done to assess the levels of stress among first-year MBBS students of Viswabharathi Medical College, Kurnool.

 

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted at Viswabharathi Medical College, Kurnool from 1^st September 2020 to 30^th September 2020. In this study, 150 first year MBBS students were enrolled. All the students of first year MBBS were told about the Objective of the study and were then invited to participate in it. Informed consent was taken and strict confidentiality was assured to all the participants. The students were instructed and then given twenty minutes to complete Kessler 10 questionnaire to assess the level of stress. The K10 questionnaire consists of ten questions. The five possible responses ranges from “none of the time” to “All of the time” and accordingly scored from 1 to 5. The score of al1 the ten questions them summated to give a total maximum score of 50. The interpretation of the scoring is <20 no stress, 20-24 mild stress, 25-29 moderate stress and 30-50 severe stress^{. (9)} Statistical Analysis was done using Microsoft Word Excel and SPSS Version 16.

 

RESULTS

Out of 150 participants, 65 students were males (43%) and 85 were females (57%) Table 1. The age of the students was in the range of 17 years to 21years. Table 2

Out of the 150 students who participated in the study, 150 completed and submitted the questionnaire. The response rate was 100%.

 

Table 1: Gender distribution among first year MBBS students

 

Table 2: Age distribution among first year MBBS students

 

Table 3: Severity of mental stress based on k 10 score (n=150)

 

Table 4: GENDER WISE DISTRIBUTION OF STRESS AMONG PARTICIPANTS

Statistically significant*

DISCUSSION

The prevalence of stress among first MBBS students in our study is 78% which was confirmed by many similar studies^10–12 Stress not only hampers the learning ability of students but also hinders the academic performance too. Excessive stress can negatively affect the academic achievement of students. Students staying at hostel, living away from their family members first time in their life easily become victim of stress. Problems of accommodation and food habits create problems in new comers (1^st year students). In our study, stress was higher among female students (38%) as compared to their male counterparts (21%) and it is statistically significant. Bazmi Inam et al. reported high prevalence of stress in female (89.7%) as compared to males (60%).¹³ Abdulghani et al. also reported high prevalence of stress among females (75.7%) than males (57%).¹⁴ Huge syllabus, lengthy textbooks, frequency and pattern of examination leads to stress among the medical students. Those students who take these things as burden feel stressed, while those who take it as a tool in learning process finds it useful. Many studies reported examination as common source of stress in medical students.^15,16 High parental expectations and home sickness in the hostels generates stress among first year medical students. Perlin et al. in their study revealed low self esteem as a major stressor among medical students.¹⁷

 

CONCLUSION

This study revealed that moderate levels of stress was predominant among first MBBS students. So it is very important to prevent the stress by adopting preventive approaches. Full time counselor should be appointed to identify the Stressors in the students life. All students must participate in some form of stress reducing activities like getting involved in social circles and participation in extracurricular activities.

 

REFERENCES

1. Sharma B, Prasad S, Pandey R et al. Evaluation of stress among post graduate medical and dental students: a pilot study. Delhi Psychiatry Journal. 2013 Oct;16(2)
2. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS): Information Paper: Use of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale in ABS health surveys, Australia, 2001.
3. Firth J. Levels and sources of stress in medical students. BMJ 1986;292:1177-80.
4. Miller PMC, Surtees PG. Psychological symptoms and their course in first-year medical students as assessed by the Interval General Health Questionnaire (I-GHQ). Br J Psychiatr 1991;159:199-207.
5. 5.Guthrie EA, Black D, Shaw CM, Hamilton J, Creed FH, Tomenson B. Embarking upon a medical career: psychological morbidity in first year medical students. Med Educ 1995;29:337-41.
6. Jafari N, Loghmani A, Montazeri A. Mental health of medical students in different levels of training. Int J Prev Med. 2012 Mar;3(Supp l1): S107–S112.
7. Kaplan HI, Saddock BJ. Sypnosis of Psychiatry: Behavioral Sciences/Clinical Psychiatry. 8th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins; 2000 Learning Theory; pp. 148–54.
8. Niemi PM, Vainiomaki PT. Medical Students’ Academic Distress, Coping and Achievement Strategies during the Pre-clinical Years. Teach Learn Med 1999;11:125–34.
9. Kessler RC, Andrews G, Colpe LJ, Hiripi E, Mroczek DK, Normand SL, et al. Short screening scales to monitor population, prevalences and trends in non-specific psychological distress. Psychol Med 2002;32:959–76.
10. Madhyastha S, Latha KS, Kamath A. Stress and coping amongfinal year medical students. AP J Psychol Med 2014;15(2):74–80.
11. Stewart SM, Betson C, Marshall I, Wong CM, Lee PW, Lam TH.Stress and vulnerability in medical students. Med Educ 1995;29(2):119–27.
12. Birks Y, McKendree J, Watt I. Emotional intelligence and perceivedstress in healthcare students: a multi-institutional,multi-professional survey. BMC Med Educ 2009;9:61.
13. Bazmi SN. Anxiety and Depression among Students of a Medical College in Saudi Arabia. IJHS 2007;1:295-300.
14. Abdulghani HM, Alkanhal AA, Mahmoud ES, Ponnamperuma GG,Alfaris EA. Stress and and its effect on medical students: A cross sectional study at a college of medicine in Saudi Arabia. J Health Popul Nutr 2011;29:516-22.
15. Cohen S, Kamarck T, Mermelstein R. A global measure of perceived stress. J Health Soc Behav 1983;24:385-396.
16. Supe AN. A study of stress in medical students at Seth G. S. Medical College. J Postgrad Med 1998;44:1-6.
17. Pearlin LI, Lieberman MA, Menaghan EG, Mullan JT. The stress process. J Health Soc Behav 1981:22;337-56.

 

 

 

 

 

Policy for Articles with Open Access
Authors who publish with MedPulse International Journal of Anesthesiology (Print ISSN:2579-0900) (Online ISSN: 2636-4654) agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post links to their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.