RESUMO
Medical student may experience an enhancement of anxiety symptoms which in excess Impair effectiveness and becomes a handicap. This cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the level of anxiety and its impact on academic achievement among medical students in Benha Faculty of Medicine. It was carried out on 1374 medical students of both sexes of all academic years chosen by systematic random method of sampling. A questionnaire including personal, familial and social features together with faculty stressors was used. The standardized Arabic translation of Taylor's test was applied to assess the level of anxiety among students. It was found that anxiety levels were higher in females, young-er students, urban residents, those living away of their families and stu-dents with older parents or having no siblings and those belonging to low social class families. Personal and familial psychiatric troubles, lack of friends, bad parental relations and family incoherence were also associated with higher levels of anxiety. The significant college factors affecting the level of anxiety were: academic rank, relation with peers, medical curriculum and practice of hobbies. Severe anxiety was encountered more significantly among students with poor grades while in excellent students anxiety was at moderate levels. Stepwise regression analysis showed that low academic achievement is best predicted by high anxiety level. The findings suggested the need to design intervention strategies to screen and prevent anxiety and other psychiatric problems among medical and. other college students