study of stress in medical students at Mansoura University

ABSTRACT

This is a cross sectional study on 311 medical students selected from students of Mansoura Medical College to highlight the prevalence of different stressors and factors associated with perceived stress. Data was collected through an anonymous self-administered questionnaire covering the socio-demographic data, stressors, perceived stress scale, assessment of physical wellbeing, hospital anxiety and depression scale as well as neuroticism and extraversion subscales of Eysenck personality questionnaire. Only 5.5% of students reported no stressors. On average each student reported a mean of 3.4 stressors. The most common stressor is relationship problems with teachers. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that the independent predictors of high stress level were presence of more than five stressors, anxiety, depression as well as global sickness index and extroversion and neuroticism sub-scales. Decreasing stressors and ameliorating their stressful effect will minimize the prevalence of perceived stress among medical students. This study calls for the necessity for planning and introduction of psychiatric and social facilities into health services of Mansoura University