Pan African Medical Journal
Journal / Pan African Medical Journal / Vol. 31 No. 1 (2018) / Articles

download PDF

Published:

Oct 9, 2018

Keywords:

Stress; medical students; anbar governorate; Falluja University; Iraq

Issue

Vol. 31 No. 1 (2018)

Section

Articles

Brief summary of the agreement Anyone is free: · to copy, distribute, and display the work; · to make derivative works; · to make commercial use of the work; Under the following conditions: Attribution · the original author must be given credit; · for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are; · any of these conditions can be waived if the authors gives permission. Statutory fair use and other rights are in no way affected by the above

Ameel Farooq Al Shawi

Department of Community Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Falluja, Iraq

Abdulrahman Nassir Abdullateef

Department of Community Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Falluja, Iraq

Mohammad Anmar Khedher

Department of Community Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Falluja, Iraq

Mohammad Saadon Rejab

Department of Community Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Falluja, Iraq

Russul Nadhim Khaleel

Department of Community Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Falluja, Iraq

Abstract

Introduction: a high prevalence of stress has been recorded among medical students worldwide. Additionally, high levels of personal distress may have a negative effect on the cognitive functioning and learning abilities of medical students.

Methods: a cross-sectional study was conducted using medical students in the Al-Anbar governorate; data collection was carried out from February to March 2018. The assessment of stress levels among these students was administered using the Kessler10 Psychological Distress instrument (K10).

Results: 231 students (77.5%) reported at least some degree of stress, ranging between severe (30.2%), moderate (25.5%) and mild (21.8%). The highest proportion of students with stress (11.5%) was reported by first-year students; this proportion largely fell within the moderate and severe categories. There was a significant statistical association between gender and stress level.

Conclusion: there is a high level of stress among medical students in Falluja and Anbar Universities; this may require special programmes to identify any predisposing factors.

Journal Identifiers

eISSN: 1937-8688