STRESS
Objectives: To assess different level of stress and reaction to those stressors among undergraduate medical students andalso observe an association between different academic years, if any exists. Design of the study: Cross-sectional study. Settings: IslamicInternational medical college- a private medical college in Rawalpindi. Period: From 2006 to 2007. Material & methods: Questionnaire usedwas a stress inventory called students life stress inventory. It was distributed to all registered MBBS students at IIMC in years 1- 5 whovoluntarily participated. 403 out of 500 students completed the questionnaire with response rate 81.6%. Results: Data was analyzed throughSPSS by applying different statistical tests, which were ANOVA, and t test. Results reveal that 21.53% students were mildly stressed, 39.12%students were moderately stressed and 12.64% students were severely stressed. Significant gender differences were found on almost all thesub-scales. The findings reveal that females face more stressors especially conflicts, emotional and behavioral (p < .01), stress was moresignificant between boarders as compare to non-boarders. One Way Analyses of variance (ANOVA) was computed to check the significanceof differences on mean scores. An analysis of variance on Student Life Stress Inventory is significant, F = (3.774), p <.01. Mean differenceindicates that prevalence of stress is higher in first year and final year MBBS students. Conclusion: This study presents pragmatic evidenceregarding the psychological health of students in our college. These findings suggest that high levels of stress exist in our students especiallysignificant during first and final years of their course. It is important for us to know the prevalence and causes of student stress, which not onlyaffects their health, but also their academic achievement. Information from this study can be used to develop appropriate intervention programsfor medical students, in order to decrease their stress leve