Stress and Its Downside among Medical and Dental Students: A Questionnaire-based Study

Aims: This study assesses the prevalence and characteristics of stress experienced by medical and dental students in their final year of education. Materials and Methods: This research was a single-point, cross-sectional observational study. A semi-structured, semi-validated questionnaire was used to collect demographic information. The questionnaire was designed to gather data from a sample size of 500 students from different medical and dental colleges in the state. It was administered using Google Forms and included established tools such as the General Health Questionnaire, the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale, and the Higher Education Stress Inventory. In addition, institution-specific questions were incorporated. The attitudes of the participants were evaluated using a Likert scale. Data Analysis: Five hundred and fifteen responses were collected, with 266 MBBS students (51.7%) and 249 BDS students (48.3%) participating. The respondent pool consisted of 77.5% female students and 22.5% male students. The findings revealed that stress was occasionally reported by 52.2% of BDS students and 55.2% of MBBS students. Furthermore, 20.48% and 22.2% of BDS and MBBS students, respectively, reported experiencing stress often. The present study employed the Chi-square test for data analysis and utilized bar and pie charts to present the results. Conclusions: The study reveals a substantial portion of students experience stress, impacting their well-being and academic performance. College administrations need to prioritize addressing this issue by implementing support mechanisms that can help students manage academic pressure and cope with stress during their educational tenure.