Stress, Anxiety And Academic Performance Among Medical Students At The University Of Cape Town

Abstract OBJECTIVES (1) To investigate the degree of anxiety and stress experienced by medical students; (2) To identify the level of anxiety and and correlate these with examination performance. Design A cross sectional survey by self-administered questionnaire. Setting The Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Cape Town (UCT). Study population Medical students registered for the first through fifth years of the MBChB programme. Method Seven hundred and eighty medical students were asked to complete a questionnaire comprising of 107 questions, divided into 2 sections. Section 1 contained 94 questions relating to stress experienced at medical school (with regard to academic, personal, relationship and environmental factors), rated on a 5 point Likert scale (with 1 = no stress and 5 = very severe stress). Section 2 comprised of 13 questions derived from a modified Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale that was rated as in section 1. Results 528 (67.7%) students completed the questionnaire, 53% male and 47% female. It was found that stress scores were generally high for both males and females in the area of academic matters (the mean result being moderate stress), however females reported severe to very severe stress more frequently than males. In the areas of personal factors and environmental factors the stress scores were similar between the genders (mild to moderate stress). Females tended to report higher scores (moderate to severe stress) with regard to relationship issues. However on the global Hamilton Anxiety Rating scores, females tended to be more stressed generally than males but when recording severe to very severe stress, the scores between males and females was similar. There is a strong and significant relationship using ANOVA between high levels of anxiety and poor examination results in Physiology and Anatomy. Conclusions As reported in other medical schools, anxiety and stress levels are high among medical students at UCT. Cognisance must be taken of this in designing curriculum change, particularly in the light of the changes in demography of medical schools in South Africa. It is remarkable that anxiety and academic performance only correlated significantly in second year students.