Anxiety and depression among students before finishing the standardized resident training program / 第二军医大学学报

ABSTRACT

Objective: To understand the anxiety and depression status of students before finishing the standardized resident training program (SRTP) and the influencing factors, so as to provide evidence-based basis for improving the mental health and management system for those residents. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted by combining the self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) and the self-rating depression scale (SDS). The participants were the graduating students of SRTP from two affliated hospitals of a military medical university, and they were surveyed and analyzed in Jul. 2018. Results: A total of 252 questionnaires were distributed and 252 valid questionnaires were returned, with a recovery rate of 100%. There were 123 (48.8%) males and 129 (51.2%) females, with an average age of (28.3 ± 2.1) years old. There were 87 (34.5%) undergraduate students, 138 (54.8%) master degree student, and 27 (10.7%) doctor degree students. Twenty-seven (10.7%) students were trained for one year, 96 (38.1%) for 2 years, and 129 (51.2%) for 3 years. There were 151 (59.9%) students from "985" universities or "211" universities (key universities in China), and 101 (40.1%) from other universities. Twenty (7.9%) participants were in military service. We found that 94.4% (238/252) of the graduating students were in an anxious state and 60.3% (152/252) in a depress state. The severity of anxiety was related to the length of training (χ2=14.214, P = 0.027). Depression was related to the type of university ("985" or "211" universities vs others, χ2 = 5.691, P = 0.017; military colleges vs regional colleges, χ2 = 5.069, P = 0.024). No relation was found between depression and anxiety state in the participants (r = 0.025, P = 0.696). Conclusion: Graduating students from SRTP are faced with multiple pressures such as medical job, employment and graduation, and the incidence rates of anxiety and depression are much higher than those of the general population and medical staff. Sufficient attention and intervention measures should be actively taken for prevention of depression and axiety.