20Jan 2017

PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS AMONG UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL STUDENTS OF SAUDI ARABIA: A CROSS SECTIONAL SURVEY.

  • MPhil Physiology, Assistant Professor in Physiology, School of Health Sciences, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Fiji National University, Fiji Islands.
  • MBBS, Medical Intern at King Fahad Specialist Hospital, Buraidah, Qassim.
  • MBBS, Intern Alzulfi General Hospital, Saudi Arabia.
  • MSc, RRT-NPS, ACCS, Alzulfi General Hospital, Saudi Arabia.
Crossref Cited-by Linking logo
  • Abstract
  • Keywords
  • References
  • Cite This Article as
  • Corresponding Author

Background: Psychological stress can negatively affect learning and performance of medical students. Medical studies are considered intrinsically more stressful than many other disciplines. This study was conducted to investigate stress among undergraduate medical students of Saudi Arabia, and to compare stress between pre-clinical and clinical students, and to compare stress between male and female students. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted in December 2016 among medical students by using a self-administered questionnaire. The data were entered and analyzed using IBM-SPSS-20. The data were summarized and analyzed by frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviation and Chi-square test. Results: A total of 119 participants (54.6% males, 45.4% females) with mean age of 21.8±2.1 years participated in this study. Severe and moderate stress was present among 78% and 20% of the participants, respectively. Prevalence of stress was high in all the medical students irrespective of whether they were in pre-clinical or clinical years of study; there was no statistically significant difference between them. Majority (77%) of the male students had severe stress as compared to 79.6% of the female students; there was no statistically significant difference between them. Conclusions: Most of the medical students of Saudi Arabia perceive their studies and training as either moderately or severely stressful. The risk of stress was high among most of the participants irrespective of their gender, and pre-clinical or clinical years of study during MBBS. It is recommended that stress management courses should be included in the curriculum of undergraduate medical students.

  1. Aktekin, M., Karaman, T., Senol, Y. Y., Erdem, S., Erengin, H. and Akaydin, M. (2001). Anxiety, depression and stressful life events among medical students: a prospective study in Antalya, Turkey. Medical education, 35(1): 12–7.
  2. Al-Dubai, S. A. R., Al-Naggar, R. A., Alshagga, M. A. and Rampal, K. G. (2011). Stress and coping strategies of students in a medical faculty in Malaysia. Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences, 18(3): 57–64.
  3. Ayyaz Ahmed Bhatti, Mahvash Khan, Hamid Bashir, S. A. (2016). Risk of development of stress in university students. Rawal Medical Journal, 41(4): 483–486.
  4. Bansal, C.P. and Bhave, S.Y. (2006).Stress in Adolescents and its Management.Textbook of Adolescent Medicine. New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers.Pp.844–53.
  5. Dyrbye, L. N., Thomas, M. R. and Shanafelt, T. D. (2006). Systematic Review of Depression, Anxiety, and other indicators of Psychological Distress among U.S. and Canadian Medical Students. Academic Medicine, 81(4): 354–373.
  6. El-Gilany, A.H., Amr, M. and Hammad, S. (2008). Perceived stress among male medical students in Egypt and Saudi Arabia: effect of sociodemographic factors. Annals of Saudi medicine, 28(6): 442–8.
  7. Firth-Cozens, J. (2003). Doctors, their wellbeing, and their stress. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 326(7391), pp. 670–671.
  8. Folkman, R. S. L. and S. (1984) Stress, Appraisal, and Coping. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
  9. Stress questionnaire. (2013).International Stress Management Association UK.
  10. Koochaki, G. M., Charkazi, A., Hasanzadeh, A., Saedani, M., Qorbani, M. and Marjani, A. (2011). Prevalence of stress among Iranian medical students: a questionnaire survey. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 17(7): 593–598.
  11. Le Fevre, M., Kolt, G. S. and Matheny, J. (2006). Eustress, distress and their interpretation in primary and secondary occupational stress management interventions: which way first? Journal of Managerial Psychology. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 21(6): 547–565.
  12. Moffat, K. J., McConnachie, A., Ross, S. and Morrison, J. M. (2004). First year medical student stress and coping in a problem-based learning medical curriculum. Medical Education, 38(5): 482–491.
  13. Oboko, O.A., Theodora, O.E., Oboko, O.O., and Monday, I.B. (2015). Prevalence of stress, stressors and coping strategies among medical students in a Nigerian medical school. African Journal of Medical and Health Sciences, 14(1): 29-34. doi: 10.4103/2384-5589.153384.
  14. Ofili AN, Oriaifo I, Okungbowa E, E. E. (2009). Stress and psychological health of medical students in a Nigerian university. Niger J Clin Pract., 12(2): 128–33.
  15. Saipanish, R. (2003). Stress among medical students in a Thai medical school. Medical teacher, 25(5): 502–506.
  16. Shapiro, S. L., Shapiro, D. E. and Schwartz, G. E. (2000). Stress management in medical education: a review of the literature. Academic medicine?: journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 75(7): 748–59.
  17. Sherina, M. S., Rampal, L. and Kaneson, N. (2004). Psychological stress among undergraduate medical students. The Medical journal of Malaysia, 59(2): 207–211.
  18. Stecker, T. (2004). Well-being in an academic environment. Medical Education, 38(5): 465–478.
  19. Stewart, Lam, Betson and Wong (1999). A prospective analysis of stress and academic performance in the first two years of medical school. Medical Education, 33(4): 243–250. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2923.1999.00294.x
  20. Waghachavare, V. B., Dhumale, G. B., Kadam, Y. R. and Gore, A. D. (2013). A study of stress among students of professional colleges from an urban area in India. Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal, 13(3): 422–429.
  21. Yousafzai, A. W., Ahmer, S., Syed, E., Bhutto, N., Iqbal, S., Siddiqi, M. N. and Zaman, M. (2009). Well-being of medical students and their awareness on substance misuse: a cross-sectional survey in Pakistan. Annals of general psychiatry, 8, p. 8.

[Mudassar Ali Roomi, Alharbi Abdulrhman Obaid, Hamoud Mohammed Alshaya and Khalid Alobeiwi. (2017); PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS AMONG UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL STUDENTS OF SAUDI ARABIA: A CROSS SECTIONAL SURVEY. Int. J. of Adv. Res. 5 (Jan). 1029-1035] (ISSN 2320-5407). www.journalijar.com

Mudassar Ali Roomi
School of Health Sciences, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Fiji National University, Fiji Islands.

DOI:

Article DOI: 10.21474/IJAR01/2847      
DOI URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.21474/IJAR01/2847

Download Full Paper

Download PDF No. of Downloads: 71 | No. of Views: 259