Patterns of the shared symptoms of anxiety among medical students in Saudi Arabia

Objective: the objective of this study was to assess the patterns of shared symptoms of anxiety among medical students in Saudi Arabia. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study enrolled in 316 Saudi medical students in the faculty of medicine, University of Hail, Northern Saudi Arabia. All participants were selected randomly regardless of level, age, and sex. All medical students in basic years (years 1, 2, and 3) as well as (years 4 and 5) phases of the academic year 2019-2020 were administered the questionnaire. The inclusion of the subjects was voluntary. Results: The symptoms of anxiety were found to be prevalent in 30.4% of the medical students. Regarding gender, the present study showed a higher prevalence rate of anxiety symptoms in female medical students (47.1%) than males (25%). For anxiety status, the prevalence of each category was 69.6% (no anxiety), 17.6% (mild anxiety), and 12.8% (moderate anxiety). The most distributed symptoms of anxiety were fear worst which is found in 212(67.1%) of the study population, followed by face flushed 201(63.6%), unable relax 166(52.5%), terrified 149(47.2%), fear losing control 134(42.4), hear pounding 118(37.3%) and scared 99(31.3%) respectively. Conclusion: Anxiety symptoms are prevalent among medical students of the University of Hail, faculty administration and academic staff should create a reactive measure to reduce anxiety among medical students and to provide educational counseling and psychological support for students to overcome these problems.