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Abstract: Introduction: During the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic, social distancing measures and various other stress factors may have been responsible for impacts on medical students' mental health. Objective: The purpose of this study is to describe the mental health status of medical students at a college in northeastern Brazil, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, investigate symptoms of anxiety and depression, and assess resilience, as well as its possible associated factors. Methodology: A cross-sectional qualitative and quantitative method was used. Data were collected using an online questionnaire among students enrolled in the medical school; data were further processed using quantitative and qualitative statistical analysis separately. The following scales were applied: Generalized Anxiety Disorder Screener (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and Wagnild and Young's Resilience Scale (RS-25). Results: About one-third of the students lived with moderate or severe anxiety symptoms, almost half had moderate to severe depressive symptoms, and more than half were classified as having low or moderately low resilience. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the difficulty in maintaining high levels of resilience and that the presence of depression or anxiety would be related to lower resilience scores in medical students during remote education. Further studies are needed to establish a causal link with the pandemic.
Resumo Introdução: Durante a pandemia de Sars-CoV-2, medidas de distanciamento social e vários outros fatores de estresse foram responsáveis por impactos na saúde mental dos estudantes de Medicina. Objetivo: Este estudo teve como objetivos descrever o estado de saúde mental de estudantes de Medicina de uma faculdade do Nordeste brasileiro, no contexto da pandemia de Covid-19, investigar sintomas de ansiedade e depressão, e avaliar a resiliência e fatores associados. Método: Utilizou-se um método qualitativo e quantitativo transversal. Coletaram-se os dados por meio de questionário on-line aplicado a alunos matriculados na Faculdade de Medicina. Em seguida, os dados foram processados separadamente por meio de análises estatísticas quantitativa e qualitativa. Adotaram-se os seguintes instrumentos: Generalized Anxiety Disorder Screener (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) e Wagnild e Young's Resilience Scale (RS-25). Resultado: Cerca de um terço dos estudantes convivia com sintomas moderados ou graves de ansiedade, quase metade apresentava sintomas depressives de moderados a graves, e mais da metade foi classificada como tendo resiliência baixa ou moderadamente baixa. Conclusão: Nossos achados destacaram que houve dificuldade em manter altos níveis de resiliência e que a presença de depressão ou ansiedade estaria relacionada a menores escores de resiliência em estudantes de Medicina durante o ensino a distância. Mais estudos são necessários para estabelecer um nexo de causalidade com a pandemia.
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Abstract Introduction Burnout syndrome is highly prevalent among medical students. Whereas burnout syndrome has been associated with negative outcomes, like suicidal ideation, protective factors are still unknown. Objective To evaluate if there is an association between burnout syndrome and resilience in medical students, assessing covariates such as depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and religiosity. Method This cross-sectional study was carried out with a sample of 209 students from a medical school in Brazil. Burnout syndrome was assessed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Student Survey. Potential protective factors and aggravators to burnout syndrome were investigated using appropriate scales. Results Fifty-nine students (28.2%) presented burnout. Multivariate analysis showed that resilience was a protective factor (p < 0.001), along with being older, married or having better academic performance. Depressive symptoms were positively associated with burnout. Religiosity was not a protective factor and suicidal ideation was not associated with burnout when adjusted for depressive symptoms. Conclusion Burnout is frequent among medical students, impacting mental health and academic performance. Resilience seems to be a protective factor, and the relationship between burnout and suicidal ideation is possibly mediated by depressive symptoms. Prospective studies are needed to further investigate the associations found in this study.