A study to assess the effect of stressful life events on psychological distress levels of participants living in an urban area

CONTEXT: Stressful life events affect the psychological wellbeing of individuals. Through this study, we aim to understand this effect and various other factors affecting the psychological wellbeing of the study participants. AIMS: To determine the vulnerability of study participants to psychological distress following stressful life events SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Cross-sectional observational study in an urban setting METHODS AND MATERIALS: Systematic random sampling with a sample size of 178. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Analysis is done using SPSS version 22. Tests used are chi square test, Spearman's rank correlation test. RESULTS: The number of life events and psychological distress scores had a positive correlation.The events that occurred in one month before history taking, a correlation was found to be strongest and no correlation was found between the events which occurred more than one year before study enrolment and the psychological distress. Factors like sleeping patterns, exercise, and marital status also had a significant correlation with the psychological distress score of participants. CONCLUSIONS: Mental health is dependent on many parameters with life events being a major factor at a given point of time. However, different factors apart from life events will affect psychological wellbeing, and mental health is an interplay of all those factors.