A Study on Perceived Stress among Medical Students from a Private Medical College in North India

Background: There is a growing concern about stress during undergraduate medical training. The process of getting metamorphosed into a professional doctor from a naïve student is quite challenging. Aim: To determine the prevalence of stress and the levels of stress in relation to various stressors among medical students at a private medical college from North India. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted including 393 undergraduate medical students from all professional MBBS years as respondents. After taking approval of Institutional Ethical Committee and informed consent from all the participating students, a structured questionnaire that included 'Demographic details' and 'Assessment of Perceived Stress due to various stressors' was administered to the students. Data set was prepared for all the respondents. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 20.0 Results:The overall prevalence of stress was found to be 37.9%.The prevalence in male and female students was 38.11% and 37.6% respectively.The prevalence of stress among first, second, third and final year student was found to be 43.2%,28%, 31% and 50% respectively.Fear of failure in exams and food in canteen and hostel emerged out to be associated with severe stress indicated by a median rating of 4. For these factors, the gender -wise medians indicated that male students were more stressed than females.Conclusion: Our findings are in keeping with various other studies that highlight the need to address this burning issue and teach the medical students different stress management techniques to improve their coping ability during the demanding professional course.