Abstract:ResumenIntroducción: Los trastornos de salud mental constituyen un problema prevalente en alumnos de educación superior, siendo los estudiantes de medicina una población especialmente vulnerable. Objetivos: Determinar la frecuencia de trastornos de salud mental en los alumnos de una escuela de medicina. Diseño: Estudio descriptivo, transversal. Institución: Escuela de Medicina, Universidad Católica Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo, Chiclayo, Lambayeque, Perú. Participantes: Alumnos de una escuela de medicina. Interv… Show more
“…In our study, we found a higher prevalence of suicide risk than the reported in previous national studies . This shows a worrying trend and might be related to the increase in the number of medical students and medical schools in our country .…”
Introduction and Aim
Suicide and harmful alcohol consumption are major health problems, especially in medical students. This study aimed to evaluate the association between risk for alcohol abuse and suicide risk in medical interns of Peruvian hospitals.
Design and Methods
We conducted a multicentre cross‐sectional study in medical interns from 18 Peruvian hospitals. We measured suicide risk, risk for alcohol abuse, depression and self‐esteem using the Plutchik Suicide Risk Scale, CAGE, Zung Self‐Rating Depression Scale and Rosenberg Self‐Esteem Scale, respectively. We used χ2 and Student t‐tests for descriptive analysis. To evaluate the association between risk for alcohol abuse and suicide risk we generated crude and adjusted Poisson regression models with robust variance and estimated prevalence ratios with 95% confidence intervals.
Results
We surveyed 433 medical interns. The prevalence of suicide risk and risk for alcohol abuse was 19.6% and 27.5%, respectively. We found significant differences in suicide risk according to age (P < 0.001), region of origin (P = 0.002), with whom the participant lived (P < 0.001), university of origin (P = 0.040), type of hospital (P = 0.042), family history of attempted suicide (P = 0.043), self‐esteem level (P < 0.001) and alcohol consumption (P < 0.001). In the adjusted model, age (PRa: 1.11, 95% confidence interval 1.05–1.17) and risk for alcohol abuse (PRa: 7.60, 95% confidence interval 4.46–12, 96) were associated with suicide risk.
Discussion and Conclusions
Two out of 10 medical interns had a positive screening for suicide risk. Age and especially risk for alcohol abuse were the associated variables.
“…In our study, we found a higher prevalence of suicide risk than the reported in previous national studies . This shows a worrying trend and might be related to the increase in the number of medical students and medical schools in our country .…”
Introduction and Aim
Suicide and harmful alcohol consumption are major health problems, especially in medical students. This study aimed to evaluate the association between risk for alcohol abuse and suicide risk in medical interns of Peruvian hospitals.
Design and Methods
We conducted a multicentre cross‐sectional study in medical interns from 18 Peruvian hospitals. We measured suicide risk, risk for alcohol abuse, depression and self‐esteem using the Plutchik Suicide Risk Scale, CAGE, Zung Self‐Rating Depression Scale and Rosenberg Self‐Esteem Scale, respectively. We used χ2 and Student t‐tests for descriptive analysis. To evaluate the association between risk for alcohol abuse and suicide risk we generated crude and adjusted Poisson regression models with robust variance and estimated prevalence ratios with 95% confidence intervals.
Results
We surveyed 433 medical interns. The prevalence of suicide risk and risk for alcohol abuse was 19.6% and 27.5%, respectively. We found significant differences in suicide risk according to age (P < 0.001), region of origin (P = 0.002), with whom the participant lived (P < 0.001), university of origin (P = 0.040), type of hospital (P = 0.042), family history of attempted suicide (P = 0.043), self‐esteem level (P < 0.001) and alcohol consumption (P < 0.001). In the adjusted model, age (PRa: 1.11, 95% confidence interval 1.05–1.17) and risk for alcohol abuse (PRa: 7.60, 95% confidence interval 4.46–12, 96) were associated with suicide risk.
Discussion and Conclusions
Two out of 10 medical interns had a positive screening for suicide risk. Age and especially risk for alcohol abuse were the associated variables.
“…In the case of Peru, two studies that relate dropouts and mental health-related issues within a medicine student population have been conducted. The first one, that analyzed dropout rates in 2010, concluded that 22% of the students had at least one mental health-related problem ( León-Jimenez et al., 2012 ); while the second one, that examined these rates between 2006 and 2014, found that only 5.7% withdrew due to mental health-related reasons ( Necochea Ocaña et al., 2017 ).…”
“…Probablemente esto se deba a sesgo de información, ya que en un estudio en el 2010 en la Escuela de Medicina de esta Universidad, se encontró que 22% de los alumnos tenían al menos un problema de salud mental, y 6,9% y 5,6%, tuvieron riesgo suicida y trastorno depresivo, respectivamente (17).…”
Frecuencia y características del abandono estudiantil en una Escuela de Medicina de Lambayeque, 2006-2014 Rev Med Hered. 2017; 28:171-177. women drop out more than men (p=0.001), and the most common reasons were having disapproved a signature and disagree with teaching methods.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.