A cross sectional Study on relationship between Perceived Stress, Copingbehaviour and lifestyle changesduring COVID-19 Pandemic era among Medical Undergraduates

ABSTRACT

Background:Today the whole world is facing the outbreak of Covid-19 disease. People were forced to remain imprisoned in their home, be it a service class, farmer, businessman or student. Due to Covid-19 Pandemic era, schools and colleges are closed. Every student is feeling stressed and waiting for permanent treatment of this disease so that the conditionsbecomes suitable and the studies shall begins in normal pace again. This study is aimed to assess the perceived stress among medical under graduate students and their methodstocopeup this stress in their own way. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional observational online study was done in august 2020. Participants were MBBS undergraduate Students, whose perceived stress and coping strategies related to Covid-19 era, were assessed using an online questionnaire(Cohen's PSS 10 scale) through Google forms. Total PSS Score was categorised into three parts as low, moderate and high. Coping measures were categorised separately according to their responses. Results: A total of 145 students took part in study. Mean±SD of total perceived stress score was found to be 21.703± 6.564, for male 20.61 and for female 23.21. Stress level was found more in females as compared to male participants. They used different typesof measures for coping out the perceived stress due to covid-19conditions. P-value of correlation of PSS with coping and lifestyle pattern was found to be 0 .440 and 0.011 respectively. Conclusion:This study indicates that,in all 71.03 % medical students were in moderate level of perceived stress, where 42.07% were males and 28.96% were females. They opted various measures to cope up the stress which leads to change in their lifestyle pattern. Mostly, students reported sleep cycle disturbancewhich further increased their stress level. Hence there is amuch needed demand of current time to take immediate action to reduce stress level in medical students.