Prevalence of Stress and Its Associated Factors Among Medical Students in Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Abstract

Stress is accepted as the accumulation of unpleasant state of physical, mental and emotion on a person. Medical education has been known as one of the most stressful academic curriculum. Hence, medical students may subjected to multiple psychological changes and challenges throughout the years of medical education. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of stress and its associated factors among medical students. This cross sectional study was conducted from April to May 2018 in medical school in Sabah. It involved 396 medical students through universal sampling. Self-administered questionnaires were used as an instrument for data collection. The questionnaires included were Sociodemographic Questionnaire, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales 21 (DASS-21) and Medical Student Stressors Questionnaire (MSSQ). Bivariate analysis (Chi Square test, Fisher’s Exact Test, Independent T test and Man-Whitney U test) were used to analyse the association. The response rate was 90.2%. The prevalence of stress among medical students were 33.3%. Significant associated factors include financial support inadequacy (p=0.010) and all categories of medical student stressors. The mean score of the academic related stressors was found to be at 2.117 (±0.758) which was the highest mean score among medical student stressors assessed by MSSQ. The result of this study can be used as a basis for implementation of preventive measures such as provision of comprehensive, integrated and responsive mental health care services in university-based settings.

Relationships between Psychopathology, Psychological Process Variables, and Sociodemographic Variables and Comparison of Quarantined and Non-Quarantined Groups of Malaysian University Students in the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Social gatherings on campus were not allowed, and students were told to remain in their own dormitory or hostel until further notice. Studies conducted prior to COVID-19 had demonstrated a higher prevalence of stress in this same group of undergraduates [8]. This suggests an urgent need to establish factors associated with increased psychopathology in students.…”

Determinants of Perceived Stress among University Students

“…Perceived stress differs from actual stress in that it occurs when a person experiences emotions or feelings related to how much stress they feel over time. There has been a lot of study on perceived stress among medical and dentistry students [8], but less has been done on the psychosocial supports that can assist students deal with it [11]. Among students, optimism is a highly significant predictor of stress reduction.…”

“…Although there is a huge of information on how stressful it is for medical and dentistry students, there are very few studies on undergraduates pursuing other courses [7][8][9][10]. Several studies have identified the role of psychological resources as a support system for managing stress [6].…”

Stress and Sleep Quality among Engineering Students

“…On the other hand, several studies have been conducted to identify the stress level among university students. Overall, moderate to high-stress levels have been reported among university students from various majors (Ahad, 2019;Almojali et al, 2017;Amir Hamzah et al, 2019;Bisai & Chaudhary, 2017;Gedam et al, 2020;González Salinas et al, 2020;Musiun et al, 2019;Negi et al, 2019;Reddy et al, 2018;Reta et al, 2020;Zhai et al, 2020). Apart from that, some previous studies have tried identifying the predictors of stress and its association.…”