Perceived Stress and Sources of Stress among First Year Medical Undergraduate Students

Medical education throughout the world poses the incoming student with many challenging situations and demands. This forms an ideal environment for the student to be under stress as he adapts to these stress-inducing conditions.

To assess the prevalence of stress among first year medical undergraduate students, to segregate the potential stressors derived from the study and categorize them under academic, psychosocial and health related.

This is a cross-sectional study involving 150 first-year medical students. Prevalence of stress was assessed using Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) which is an internationally validated 10-item questionnaire. The effect of potential stressors was assessed using a 42-item questionnaire. The stressors were categorized as academic, psychosocial and health related.

Of the 150 respondents, the mean PSS score was 21.09(SD: 4.7). 128 students (85.3%) reported moderate stress, 16 students (10.7%) had high stress and 6 students (4%) reported Low/No stress. The top 5 stressors were all academic or psychosocial stressors.

The vast majority reported moderate/severe stress and analysis highlighted a greater association with academic factors compounded by psychosocial ones. Preventive mental health measures on the basis of this and further studies into the occurrences of stress in the early academic years of a medical professional, followed by effective management tools and programs could go a long way in counteracting the harmful long term effects of stress on their careers, producing happier and more productive and efficient medical professionals.