Analysis of Stressors among Undergraduate Medical Students in a Teaching Medical Institution of South India

Introduction: Medical students experience considerableamount of stress related to various domains such as academicrelated, social related, interpersonal related etc. It is importantto look for the levels of stressors among medical students andintervene at appropriate time in order to improve the qualityof medical professionals.Material and methods: A cross sectional study was conductedamongst undergraduate medical students by providing astructured Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire (MSSQ20) to assess the stressors. Stresses related to academic related,social related, interpersonal related data were statisticallyanalyzed.Results: This study included 136 students (73% females and27% males). The mean age and BMI of the participants were21.24 ±1.74 years and 21.7 ± 3.3 kg/m2 respectively. This studyshowed that medical students experience moderate levels ofstress in all the domains of stress and a significant increase isnoted in academic related stress (ARS) than other domains (pvalue <0.0001) followed by group activities related stress andsocial related stress.Conclusion: ARS is acting as a major stress factor amongall the stress domains in medical students of this studypopulation. Appropriate measures should be taken to promotethe physical and mental well-being of medical students andthereby ensuring academic excellence and good qualitymedical professionals.

Sources of stress among first-year medical students

Background: The extremely demanding environment of medical education puts medical students under tremendous pressure. During the initial years of training, causes of stress are mainly related to academic and emotional factors, while in later years patient care and physical factors are more remarkable. Objectives: The current study was conducted with an aim to find out the major sources of stress among 1st year medical students. Materials and Methods: This questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 1st year students of Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Medical College, Srinagar for a period of 3 months. Medical student stressor questionnaire which has good psychometric properties was used to evaluate the major stressors. The questionnaire has 40 items representing the six stressor domains, each based on a common underlying theme. Results: Academic related stressors were identified as a source of stress by nearly two-thirds of the students (63.95%) followed by teaching and learning related stressors (43.02%) and inter/intra-personal related stressors (32.55%). Conclusion: Our study found a high prevalence of stress among 1st year medical students and academic related stressors were identified as the major contributors of overall stress.