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Assessing Physiological and Psychological Factors Contributing to Stress among Medical Students: Implications for Health

Background: Physiological responses to stress disturb internal homeostasis, leading to serious health consequences. Medical students experience high stress levels that should be managed promptly to prevent stress-related impacts on students’ health and education. Aim: This study aims to identify the...

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Autores principales: Al-Rouq, Fawzia, Al-Otaibi, Alanoud, AlSaikhan, Alanoud, Al-Essa, Maha, Al-Mazidi, Sarah
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9779130/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36554703
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416822
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author Al-Rouq, Fawzia
Al-Otaibi, Alanoud
AlSaikhan, Alanoud
Al-Essa, Maha
Al-Mazidi, Sarah
author_facet Al-Rouq, Fawzia
Al-Otaibi, Alanoud
AlSaikhan, Alanoud
Al-Essa, Maha
Al-Mazidi, Sarah
author_sort Al-Rouq, Fawzia
collection PubMed
description Background: Physiological responses to stress disturb internal homeostasis, leading to serious health consequences. Medical students experience high stress levels that should be managed promptly to prevent stress-related impacts on students’ health and education. Aim: This study aims to identify the relationship between stress factors, general health, and academic performance. Methods: This study recruited 421 medical students of all academic years. Participants completed an online survey assessing stress levels using a validated 10-item Perceived Stress Scale. Stress was also compared with students’ health and academic performance. Results: We found that 93.6% of our sample experienced moderate to severe stress, and 31% reported increased stress due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Except for internship students, stress significantly decreases as students progress each academic year (p < 0.05). Students with higher GPAs and with comorbidities are more stressed. Comorbidities were primarily reported in students in their final years of education with a 4% lower GPA than healthy students. Although we had three stress-related themes (general, academic, and pandemic), students’ perceptions of stress factors were primarily academically related. Conclusions: Students experience high stress levels in their final educational years, which might increase the risk of health issues and low academic performance. It is essential to innovate stress-coping strategies specially designed for medical students and mandatorily provided by all medical colleges and to educate students on the effects of stress on their health.
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spelling pubmed-97791302022-12-23 Assessing Physiological and Psychological Factors Contributing to Stress among Medical Students: Implications for Health Al-Rouq, Fawzia Al-Otaibi, Alanoud AlSaikhan, Alanoud Al-Essa, Maha Al-Mazidi, Sarah Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: Physiological responses to stress disturb internal homeostasis, leading to serious health consequences. Medical students experience high stress levels that should be managed promptly to prevent stress-related impacts on students’ health and education. Aim: This study aims to identify the relationship between stress factors, general health, and academic performance. Methods: This study recruited 421 medical students of all academic years. Participants completed an online survey assessing stress levels using a validated 10-item Perceived Stress Scale. Stress was also compared with students’ health and academic performance. Results: We found that 93.6% of our sample experienced moderate to severe stress, and 31% reported increased stress due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Except for internship students, stress significantly decreases as students progress each academic year (p < 0.05). Students with higher GPAs and with comorbidities are more stressed. Comorbidities were primarily reported in students in their final years of education with a 4% lower GPA than healthy students. Although we had three stress-related themes (general, academic, and pandemic), students’ perceptions of stress factors were primarily academically related. Conclusions: Students experience high stress levels in their final educational years, which might increase the risk of health issues and low academic performance. It is essential to innovate stress-coping strategies specially designed for medical students and mandatorily provided by all medical colleges and to educate students on the effects of stress on their health. MDPI 2022-12-15 /pmc/articles/PMC9779130/ /pubmed/36554703 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416822 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Al-Rouq, Fawzia
Al-Otaibi, Alanoud
AlSaikhan, Alanoud
Al-Essa, Maha
Al-Mazidi, Sarah
Assessing Physiological and Psychological Factors Contributing to Stress among Medical Students: Implications for Health
title Assessing Physiological and Psychological Factors Contributing to Stress among Medical Students: Implications for Health
title_full Assessing Physiological and Psychological Factors Contributing to Stress among Medical Students: Implications for Health
title_fullStr Assessing Physiological and Psychological Factors Contributing to Stress among Medical Students: Implications for Health
title_full_unstemmed Assessing Physiological and Psychological Factors Contributing to Stress among Medical Students: Implications for Health
title_short Assessing Physiological and Psychological Factors Contributing to Stress among Medical Students: Implications for Health
title_sort assessing physiological and psychological factors contributing to stress among medical students: implications for health
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9779130/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36554703
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416822
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