Severity of stress in Pakistani medical students

Objective: To determine the effect and severity of stress on medical students. Methodology: We conducted a cross-sectional study on Pakistani medical students from May 2012 to January 2015. Questionnaire was distributed among medical students all over Pakistan in 8 government and 8 private medical colleges. Medical students fulfilling the inclusion criteria were enrolled through consecutive non-probability sampling. The data obtained was analyzed by SPSS version 21. Results: Among the 6231 medical students, who filled the questionnaire 49.3% were unable to concentrate/focus on study, 43.4% were restless and 40.9% were angry most of the time because of stress. Gender, year of medical education, interaction with family members, choosing medical profession with free will and significant health problems were found to be significantly (p<0.05) associated with severity of stress. Conclusion: A large number of medical students are suffering from different effects of stress with varying severity. The study highlights all these effects of stress which affect the physical, mental and social well-being and also the level of severity of stress of the individual.