Perceived Stress Among Undergraduate Medical Students at GMC-Srinagar, GMC-Baramulla, & GMC-Anantnag: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Stress in medical students worldwide has been shown to have consequences on health, academics, ability and social/personal behaviour. Aim: Aim of this cross-sectional study was to measure and compare stress levels among the male and female medical students of three government-run medical colleges in Kashmir. Methods: Data was collected from 264 students using a structured questionnaire through password-protected Google forms. The already validated and reliable Perceived Stress Scale was used to analyze the stress levels of the participants. Statistical Analysis: The R software package was used to analyse the data obtained. Categorical data was analyzed using the Pearson chi-square test. A P-value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: Results of the PSS Score analysis revealed that a majority of the students 145 (54.9%) had moderate stress, followed by 83 (31.4%) who had high stress, and 36 (13.6% ) had low-stress levels. A higher proportion (39.09%) of the female students had a high PSS score as compared to 23.66% of the male students. A statistically significant association was found between the PSS Scale and Items 2, 6, and 8 of the PSS questionnaire as well as Life check events 2, 3, 4, 6, and 16 all having a p-value of <0.05. Conclusion: The results of our study confirm the findings of other similar studies. High levels of stress among medical students is a serious cause of concern. We also found that females have higher levels of perceived stress across colleges. Further investigation is needed on the exact methods and policies medical colleges need to employ to reduce stress among students.