Stress in Medical Students

Background and purpose: Beginning medicine for the first time as a academic program is a very stressful for medical students. This study is an attempt to determine stress in medical students of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences and Health Services.Methods: A survey of randomly selected medical students of all years in Quazvin medical university were conducted based on a questionnaire including demographic data and items examining possible sources of anxiety based on our experience with medical students and a scale to measure the anxiety experienced by the students as well as an item asking students how satisfied they are with studying medicine were given to all subjects. On the questionnaire space were provided for respondent toexpress their comments on each factor they identify as source of stress. To measure the anxiety the students were asked to mark the level of anxiety they experienced on a six point scale. Analyses of data was conducted with SPSS version 12. Relation between variables was assessed with chi-square test with a significance level of <0.05.Results: Of the 200 students who received questionnaires 155 completed and returned them ( response rate = 77.7%). Of all respondent , 123 (79.4%) were female, 140 (90.3%) were unmarried. Nearly half the students (45%) experienced intermediate or higher levels of stress. More frequently expressed factors leading to stress were “ initial adaptation to the program” (84.5%) ,apprehension of exam (41.3%) and economic issues(32.4%).Conclusion: Our findings suggests that many stressors are present in the path to become a doctor. A more detailed investigation of these factor throughout universities of medicine and based on that introducing procedures centrally and university-based will undoubtedly help tackle many of these problems.