Stress-related conditions among female students in Almaarefa Colleges,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Introduction: Stress can play a role in exacerbating the symptoms of a wide variety of disorders and illnesses. Researchers estimate that 75 to 90 percent of all visits to primary care physicians were for complaints and conditions that were, in some way, stress-related. Objectives: This study aimed to measure the proportion of stress related conditions, and to identify the factors that are related to stress among female students in the different departments of ALMaarefa Colleges Methodology: Hundred female students were selected by simple random sampling to participate. They represented a variety of health specialties. Data was collected by close ended questionnaire. The data was cleared, coded, entered and analyzed by SPSS(Statistical Package For Social Science). Results: from the stressful situations that faced the students, the most common was feeling guilty when taking a break and do nothing (91%) and over thinking about future in 80%. Feeling upset or having stomach quivers (77%), hair falls (73%), were the most frequently encountered symptoms related to stress. Stress was aggravated by ”anger about things being out of control” in 83% of cases and “becoming upset when something happens unexpectedly” in 75%. Eighty nine percent of students reported that they found refuge from stress in prayers, or taking a bath in 87%. Conclusion: In conclusion, more than half of the students reported significant frequencies of being stressed. At the same time, more than half of the samples are suffering from symptoms related to the stress.