Stress arises once an individual is unable to handle a situation. Continuous stress may lead to certain complications. Objective: To see the frequency of stress among medical students. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 182 medical students of the fourth year and final year from different medical colleges of Pakistan. A pre-designed questionnaire was served to the students. Different questions about stress, its reasons, and handling techniques were asked. Data were analyzed with SPPS V.23. Results: 135 (88.2%) out of 182 medical students including 69 females (45.09%) and 66 males (43.13%) reported that they faced different kinds of stress i.e. continuous or random stress during their academic and clinical rotations.  Different kinds of handling techniques were isolation, handing out with friends, focusing on studies, etc. Conclusion: Most of the medical students face stress during their academics and clinical rotations. This stress may be for a smaller time or longer time depending on the nature of stress and ability of the student to cope with the stress

Akram, Hira

Chishti, Yusra

Raheed, Hammad

Rashid, Junaid

Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies (AJMS)

ISSN: 2321-8819 (Online) 2348-7186 (Print) Impact Factor: 1.498 Vol. 7, Issue 7, July, 2019  
27 
Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 7(7) July, 2019 
 
  
  
 
 
 
Frequency of Stress among Medical Students 
 
Junaid Rashid1, Yusra Chishti2, Hira Akram3 and Hammad Rashid4 
1Postgraduate Resident PGMI/LGH Lahore 
2Akhtar Saeed Medical and Dental College Lahore 
3Sheikh Zayed Medical College Rahim Yar Khan 
4Riphah International University Lahore Campus 
 
ABSTRACT: 
Stress arises once an individual is unable to handle a 
situation. Continuous stress may lead to certain 
complications. 
Objective: To see the frequency of stress among medical 
students.  
Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study 
included 182 medical students of fourth year and final 
year from different medical colleges of Pakistan. A pre-
designed questionnaire was served to the students. 
Different questions about stress, its reasons and handling 
techniques were asked. Data were analyzed with SPPS 
V.23.  
Results: 135 (88.2%) out of 182 medical students 
including 69 females (45.09%) and 66 males (43.13%) 
reported that they faced different kinds of stress i.e. 
continuous or random stress during their academic and 
clinical rotations.  Different kinds of handling techniques 
were isolation, handing out with friends, focusing on 
studies etc. 
Conclusion: Most of the medical students face stress 
during their academics and clinical rotations. This stress 
may be for a smaller time or longer time depending on 
the nature of stress and ability of the student to cope with 
the stress. 
Keywords: Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Medical 
Education 
INTRODUCTION: 
According to the studies, stress is usually defined 
as the condition in which an individual is not able 
to tackle difficult and challenging situations. Stress 
is a common condition and can be found at any age 
especially teenagers or young adults who are 
coping with their studies, careers, and growth. It is 
also increasing with the passage of time. The 
reason might be the increasing population, low 
incomes, illnesses or limitations in the social or 
working life1. 
According to some studies held in Pakistan2, Great 
Britain3 and Malaysia3, the ratio of stress levels 
among the medical students was above 70%, 
31.2%, and 41.9% respectively. In the medical 
field, students face a lot of challenges, especially 
during their educational and clinical trainings. 
According to some studies, this stress might be 
increasing due to the peer pressure they face during 
their studies4. Other factors that may lead to the 
stress are hostel life, limited opportunities for 
relaxation or fear of the future. In Pakistan, people 
usually live in combined families and are habitual 
of living social life so living in the hostels where 
they are away from their families and also they 
don’t get the proper meals. Different kind of 
recreations and leisure are important for a healthy 
life. A medical student also misses this kind of 
things due to the vast and most demanding studies 
and clinical rotations5. 
If an individual takes stress for a longer period of 
time, it may result in certain complications such as 
poor mental health, cardiac issues, increased blood 
pressure, increased musculoskeletal problems and 
most dangerous of all is suicidal thoughts. Due to 
this stress, a medical student is neither able to 
concentrate of his studies nor he performs well in 
his clinical rotations resulting in failure to achieve 
to better knowledge which hampers his approach to 
become a better health professional which 
ultimately leads to inappropriate treatment of 
patients, therefore a failed system6,7,8.   
This study was conducted in order to see the 
frequency of stress among the medical students, 
identify different factors that may lead to the stress 
and the methods or techniques which medical 
students use in order to relieve the stress or anxiety. 
This study will help us in making policies and 
systems that will help students study in a stress-free 
environment and enable them to cope the different 
kind of stresses they will face during their clinical 
rotations and health practice.  
MATERIAL AND METHODS:  
It was a cross-sectional study and was conducted in 
fourth and final year medical students from 
different medical colleges of Pakistan. Total of 182 
medical students was included. Students who were 
living in the hostels were included. Married or day 
scholar students were excluded from this study. 
Purpose of this study was explained to them, 
consent was taken and a questionnaire was given.  
Data was collected from different students, entered 
and analyzed in SPSS Ver. 20. Categorical i.e. 
quantitative variables were expressed as numbers 
ISSN: 2321-8819 (Online) 2348-7186 (Print) Impact Factor: 1.498 Vol. 7, Issue 7, July, 2019  
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Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 7(7) July, 2019 
 
  
  
 
 
 
and percentages and quantitative variables were 
presented as mean and standard deviations.  
RESULTS: 
A questionnaire was served to 182 medical 
students, only 153 students returned the proforma 
i.e. response rate was recorded to be 84.06%. 
Among 153 students there were 80 (52.3%) female 
students and 73 (47.7%) male students. Mean age 
of the students was 24.46±1.219 years. Mean age 
of the female students was 24.35±1.284 years and 
mean age of the male students was 24.58±1.142 
years. Eighteen students (11.8%) including 11 
females (7.18%) and 7 males (4.57%) reported that 
they never experienced stress during their studies 
or clinical rotations. One hundred and thirty-five 
students (88.2%) including 69 females (45.09%) 
and 66 males (43.13%) reported that they are 
facing stress or they have faced the stress earlier in 
their career. Eighty-one students (52.94%) face 
persistent or constant stress and 54 students 
(35.29%) face occasional or random stress. 
Different types of stress and their coping 
techniques are given in table I and II. Symptoms 
noticed during the stress were low energy, lack of 
sleep, despair or hopelessness and in some cases 
suicidal thoughts. 
Conditions Male Female Total % 
Hopes of the 
family 
9 13 22 16.30 
Hostel 8 12 20 14.81 
Absence of 
different 
recreations 
4 11 15 11.11 
Examinations 7 10 17 12.59 
Doubts about 
the future 
15 8 23 17.04 
Class 
Attendance 
8 5 13 9.63 
Daily 
assignments 
6 3 9 6.67 
Health 3 2 5 3.70 
Unprofessional 
teaching 
methods 
6 05 11 8.15 
Total 66 69 135 100% 
Table-I: Distribution of students taking the 
stress 
Handling 
Techniques 
Male Female Total % 
Attend 
Counselling 
sessions 
5 7 12 8.89 
Focus more 21 17 38 28.15 
Handling 
Techniques 
Male Female Total % 
on studies 
Hanging out 
with friends 
10 8 18 13.33 
Isolation from 
the friends 
and class 
fellows 
8 13 21 15.56 
Listening to 
the music 
7 9 16 11.85 
Sleeping for a 
longer time 
6 12 18 13.33 
Smoking and 
tobacco usage 
9 3 12 8.89 
Total 66 69 135 100 
Table-II: Various handling techniques in order 
to cope the stress 
DISCUSSION: 
Stress has multifaceted factors and it is very 
difficult to look into a single cause of stress. In our 
study, different medical students described 
different types of stress and different techniques of 
handling the stress. In our study more females 
reported stress than male students. This is in 
accordance with the study by Wentz9 and Misra10. 
It was noticed that most of the students were facing 
continuous and constant stress during their studies 
and clinical rotations. It brings out attention to the 
reasons that why is it happening i.e. two most 
common factors are doubts about the future and 
hopes of the family. Due to recent changes in 
residency structure of Pakistan especially Punjab, 
there is an uncertainty among the students 
regarding the future. Moreover salaries of the 
doctors in Pakistan are low so most of the medical 
students also have this fear of low income and low 
quality of life11. In Pakistan, where we have a 
strong family background, hopes of the family as 
also very high12. Other main reasons were hostel 
life, absence of different recreations, examinations, 
and assignments. Another factor noticed was poor 
teaching methodology. This factor also imposed 
stress on different students13 .Reason might be that 
many students who are unable to understand their 
daily lectures due to poor teaching technique, will 
ultimately score low in their assignments and 
examination leading to inadequate professional 
training, hence leading to more stress. According to 
other studies, academic pressures i.e. assignments, 
presentations, clinical rotations and final 
examinations enforce the anxiety and stress on the 
students.  
ISSN: 2321-8819 (Online) 2348-7186 (Print) Impact Factor: 1.498 Vol. 7, Issue 7, July, 2019  
29 
Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 7(7) July, 2019 
 
  
  
 
 
 
Different techniques were used by the students in 
order to relieve the stress. Most frequent technique 
among the male students were focusing on the 
studies, hanging out with the friends and smoking 
and among females were isolation from the friends 
and class fellows, sleeping for a longer time and 
focusing on studies. These findings endorse our 
culture where females don’t hang out too much and 
just isolate themselves for a limited time. Smoking 
or tobacco usage has a very low proportion among 
the females.  
LIMITATIONS: 
We conducted this study in a smaller number of 
medical students. Few questions were also not 
asked i.e. the status of family income, relationships 
with opposite gender students and upcoming 
martial challenges.  
CONCLUSION: 
Most of the medical students face stress during 
their academics and clinical rotations. This stress 
may be for a smaller time or longer time depending 
on the nature of stress and ability of the student to 
cope with the stress. There is a need to implement 
health and stress counseling sessions for the 
medical students which will enable them to become 
a better health professional leading to increased 
patient care and ultimately a healthy system.
  
 
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