Assessment of the depression, anxiety and stress levels among the medical undergraduate students using DASS

Abstract

Aims:To assess the depression, anxiety and stress levels among the medical students by using DASS.  Materials and Methods:This study was carried out in the Department of Community Medicine, Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital, Gaya, Bihar, India from 1 year, after taking the approval of the protocol review committee and institutional ethics committee. After taking informed consent detailed history was taken from the Participant.They were informed about the anonymous and voluntary nature of participation in the study without any undue fear, stigma, or adverse documentation and were contacted during their free time. A previously validated and standardized survey instrument, Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS 21), was used to collect information on depression, anxiety, and stress. Results:A total of 200 students participated in the study giving a response rate of 96%. The profile of the study sample was predominantly male (65%); hosteller (70%) with 61% of students having one sibling. Nearly 25% and 32.5% of students reported having ever smoked or consumed alcohol, respectively. The overall mean age of students was 21.33 (standard deviation=1.98) years. It was also found that 35% had a family history of chronic noncommunicable disease; 12% further mentioned that there was a family history of chronic mental illness while 22% of students had suffered with some medical conditions such as typhoid, malaria, pneumonia, and hospitalization due to injury in the past. It was found that 54(27%), 60(30%), and 86(43%) medical students were affected by symptoms suggestive of depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively. Some students were affected by >1 emotional state. It was observed on bivariate analysis that higher proportion of students with anxiety had a history of some medical condition and this was found to be statistically significant (P<0.05). Similarly, family history of chronic noncommunicable disorder was significantly (P<0.05) associated with stress and family history of mental illness with depression only.Higher proportion of all the three emotional distress states was found in the 1st‑year students in comparison to senior students (P<0.05).Conclusion: More than half of the medical undergraduate students were found to be affected by depression, anxiety and stress. There is a need for the counselling services to be made available to the students in the medical college to control this morbidity.