Stress and its correlates among medical students in six medical colleges: an attempt to understand the current situation

Middle East Current Psychiatry

Mugtaba Osman¹  Mohamed Elhassan Abdalla²  Mohamed H. Taha³  Azza Ramadan⁴  Musaab Ahmed⁴  Mohamed H. Ahmed⁵  Mumen Abdalazim Dafallah⁶  Wail Nuri Osman⁶  Esraa Ahmed Ragab⁶  Mahmoud Hussien Salih⁶  Elhadi Miskeen⁷ 

[1] Armed Forces Centre for Psychiatric Care;Center of Medical and Bio-allied Health Sciences Research, Ajman University;College of Medicine and Medical Education Centre, University of Sharjah;College of Pharmacy, Al-Ain University;Department of Medicine and HIV Metabolic Clinic, Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust;Faculty of Medicine, University of Gezira;Obstetrics and gynaecology Department, College of Medicine, University of Bisha;

关键词: Stress;    Medical students;    Medical education;    Sudan;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s43045-021-00158-w

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Abstract Background Medical students encounter various stressors during their studies. The study aimed to assess stress levels, sources, and associated determinants among Sudanese medical students. An online questionnaire-based study was conducted among 617 undergraduate medical students of 6 different universities in Sudan. A 19-item questionnaire was utilized to assess stress sources, in addition to demographics, stress manifestations, and coping strategies. Results The overall prevalence of stress was 31.7% (p < 0.01). The main sources of stress were time pressure, heavy workload, fear of failure, and examination frequency. One-third of students indicated that they experienced at least one source of psychosocial- and teaching-related stress. Female medical students were more significantly stressed due to academics than males. Also, fourth- and fifth-year students were academically more stressed in comparison to the first-year students. Poisson regression analysis model showed that first-year students were less stressed than the final-year students in relation to academics (odds = 0.888, P = 0.003). Male medical students, across all study years, were far less stressed than females (odds = 0.901, P = 0.000153). Expectedly, ‘studying medicine by choice’ was associated with decreased odds for psychosocial stressors (odds = 0.885, P = 0.00781), and improved model-fit (chi-squared = 6.8952, P = 0.008643). Also, the year of study was a predictor of teaching-related stress development. Conclusions Female medical students were more stressed due to academics than males. On the other hand, final-year students were more academically stressed than first-year students. Female medical students were likely having stress related to academic stress development, while being first-year medical student was a predictor of not developing academic stress. Studying medicine by choice’ was associated with ability to cope against stress.

【 授权许可】

Unknown