Prevalence of Psychological Stress among Undergraduate Medical Students in Southern District of Karnataka

Background: Medical students experience more stress because of the vast medical syllabus, immense academic workload, inter and intrapersonal issues and motivation-related hurdles, financial and personal reasons.Objectives: To assess the prevalence of stress and stressors among undergraduate medical students and to find thefactors affecting their levels of stress.Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among Phase 1 to 3 medical students of Kodagu Institute of Medical Sciences, Madikeri, Karnataka for a period of 2 months. The data was collected using standard Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire and Perceived Stress Scale questionnaire. Results: Out of 386 students 16.6%,76.7% and 6.7% of the students were suffering from High, Moderate and Low stress respectively. Academic-related stressors were causing more stress and least by Drive and Desire Related Stressors. Medical students with >20 years of age group, females, final year students, and occupation of their father being doctor showed significant association with the level of stressConclusion: In our study, 93.3% of the students were suffering from stress. Academic-related stressors were the major causes of stress among medical students. Logistic regression analysis depicts that a significant association was present between the level of stress and female students, final year MBBS students