Correlation between anxiety, depression and excessive daytime sleepiness and selected lifestyle elements of medical students in Poland

Introduction: Students' mental health disorders are widespread, but it seems that social awareness around the subject is not ideal. The aim of the study was to identify possible causes of depressive and anxiety disorders and the level of drowsiness among medical students in Poland. Material and methods: An online questionnaire was used to gather data. 2339 completed questionnaires were collected. The original questionnaire contained 4 parts: student's life, the Beck Depression Inventory, the GAD-7 general anxiety questionnaire and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. Results: More than half (65%) of respondents reported a lack of free time for any non-university activity. Among them, 70.6% achieved a moderate or severe depression result and 55.1% moderate or severe anxiety. 43.6% of students reported spending more than 4 hours per day on studying and the learning effects are satisfactory for only 10.5% of students. Only 11.1% of participants were satisfied with their university lives, although 50.4% of subjects have an average score between 4.01 and 5.00. Out of those who were not satisfied with their lives at university, as many as 94.0% showed signs of moderate or severe depression. Students satisfied with their lives at university more often reported participating in non-university activities and achieved better results in the ESS, Beck Depression Inventory and GAD-7. Conclusions: Overload of responsibilities often caused problems with non-university activities. According to our research, those aspects have a significant impact on well-being and students' mental health. It would therefore be useful to learn time management and revision of the teaching overload.