Background: Medical students are facing huge challenge due to COVID-19 pandemic which has impacted their learning and has become vital
stressor and affecting their psychological well-being. The objective of this study was to assess the perception of the stress among the undergraduate
medical students and their coping strategies pre and post lockdown.
Materials and Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 321 undergraduate medical students at Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical
Sciences, Mandya, Karnataka, India. This study was initiated after getting approval from the Institutional Ethical Committee. After obtaining
consent the extent of the students stress was assessed using Perceived Stress Scale and Brief COPE was used to assess their coping strategies.
Scores were analysed using paired t test in Microsoft excel/ SPSS software.
Results: On paired 't' t test the mean difference in total score was 0.68 and the p value was 0.166 for scores of perceived stress scale, similarly the
mean difference in scores of sub groups under coping strategies was 0.90 and 0.49 with 'p' value 0.173 and 0.498 respectively.
Conclusion: Overall, there was not much of difference in scores of perceived stress scale and coping strategies before and after lockdown. Except
for minor difference across age group and scores of specic coping strategies which was again not statistically signicant.