Middle East Current Psychiatry (Dec 2021)

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

  • Esraa Ahmed Ragab,
  • Mumen Abdalazim Dafallah,
  • Mahmoud Hussien Salih,
  • Wail Nuri Osman,
  • Mugtaba Osman,
  • Elhadi Miskeen,
  • Mohamed H. Taha,
  • Azza Ramadan,
  • Musaab Ahmed,
  • Mohamed Elhassan Abdalla,
  • Mohamed H. Ahmed

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s43045-021-00158-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 28, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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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.

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