TY - JOUR
T1 - Stress and its correlates among medical students in six medical colleges
T2 - an attempt to understand the current situation
AU - Ragab, Esraa Ahmed
AU - Dafallah, Mumen Abdalazim
AU - Salih, Mahmoud Hussien
AU - Osman, Wail Nuri
AU - Osman, Mugtaba
AU - Miskeen, Elhadi
AU - Taha, Mohamed H.
AU - Ramadan, Azza
AU - Ahmed, Musaab
AU - Abdalla, Mohamed Elhassan
AU - Ahmed, Mohamed H.
AU - Elsayed, Mohamed Elhassan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Abstract: Background: Medical students encounter various stressors during their studies. The study aimed to assess stress levels, sources, and associated determinants among Sudanese medical students. An online questionnaire-based study was conducted among 617 undergraduate medical students of 6 different universities in Sudan. A 19-item questionnaire was utilized to assess stress sources, in addition to demographics, stress manifestations, and coping strategies. Results: The overall prevalence of stress was 31.7% (p < 0.01). The main sources of stress were time pressure, heavy workload, fear of failure, and examination frequency. One-third of students indicated that they experienced at least one source of psychosocial- and teaching-related stress. Female medical students were more significantly stressed due to academics than males. Also, fourth- and fifth-year students were academically more stressed in comparison to the first-year students. Poisson regression analysis model showed that first-year students were less stressed than the final-year students in relation to academics (odds = 0.888, P = 0.003). Male medical students, across all study years, were far less stressed than females (odds = 0.901, P = 0.000153). Expectedly, ‘studying medicine by choice’ was associated with decreased odds for psychosocial stressors (odds = 0.885, P = 0.00781), and improved model-fit (chi-squared = 6.8952, P = 0.008643). Also, the year of study was a predictor of teaching-related stress development. Conclusions: Female medical students were more stressed due to academics than males. On the other hand, final-year students were more academically stressed than first-year students. Female medical students were likely having stress related to academic stress development, while being first-year medical student was a predictor of not developing academic stress. Studying medicine by choice’ was associated with ability to cope against stress.
AB - Abstract: Background: Medical students encounter various stressors during their studies. The study aimed to assess stress levels, sources, and associated determinants among Sudanese medical students. An online questionnaire-based study was conducted among 617 undergraduate medical students of 6 different universities in Sudan. A 19-item questionnaire was utilized to assess stress sources, in addition to demographics, stress manifestations, and coping strategies. Results: The overall prevalence of stress was 31.7% (p < 0.01). The main sources of stress were time pressure, heavy workload, fear of failure, and examination frequency. One-third of students indicated that they experienced at least one source of psychosocial- and teaching-related stress. Female medical students were more significantly stressed due to academics than males. Also, fourth- and fifth-year students were academically more stressed in comparison to the first-year students. Poisson regression analysis model showed that first-year students were less stressed than the final-year students in relation to academics (odds = 0.888, P = 0.003). Male medical students, across all study years, were far less stressed than females (odds = 0.901, P = 0.000153). Expectedly, ‘studying medicine by choice’ was associated with decreased odds for psychosocial stressors (odds = 0.885, P = 0.00781), and improved model-fit (chi-squared = 6.8952, P = 0.008643). Also, the year of study was a predictor of teaching-related stress development. Conclusions: Female medical students were more stressed due to academics than males. On the other hand, final-year students were more academically stressed than first-year students. Female medical students were likely having stress related to academic stress development, while being first-year medical student was a predictor of not developing academic stress. Studying medicine by choice’ was associated with ability to cope against stress.
KW - Medical education
KW - Medical students
KW - Stress
KW - Sudan
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85120996487&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s43045-021-00158-w
DO - 10.1186/s43045-021-00158-w
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85120996487
SN - 2090-5408
VL - 28
SP - -
JO - Middle East Current Psychiatry
JF - Middle East Current Psychiatry
IS - 1
M1 - 75
ER -
