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. 2018 Feb 23;18(1):29.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-018-1133-2.

Perceived stress, reasons for and sources of stress among medical students at Rabigh Medical College, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Zohair Jamil Gazzaz  1 , Mukhtiar Baig  2 , Bader Salem Mana Al Alhendi  3 , Mohammed Mahdi Owiad Al Suliman  3 , Awshaemah Salem Al Alhendi  3 , Mana Saleh Hadi Al-Grad  3 , Mohammed Abdullah Ali Qurayshah  3
Affiliations

Perceived stress, reasons for and sources of stress among medical students at Rabigh Medical College, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Zohair Jamil Gazzaz et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: Medical students have high levels of stress that could be due to the daily life stressors and the extra stress of academic burden. The present study investigated the perceived stress level as well as the reasons and sources of stress among medical students at a comparatively newly established medical college affiliated with King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (SA).

Methods: The present study was carried out at Rabigh Medical College (RMC), KAU, Jeddah, and completed in 2015. The data was collected by an anonymous self-administered questionnaire that has three components: a list of 33 items of probable stressors, perceived stress scale, and demographic information and academics.

Results: The response rate in our study was 86% (152/176), the mean age was 20.35 ± 1.09, 77 (51%) were from preclinical years and 75 (49%) from clinical years. The mean PSS score among our participants was 28.5 ± 3.8 with a median of 28.0 (IQR 26.0-31.0) and 59.2% of participants were stressed. The mean PSS score 30.6 ± 4.4 for students with sibling > 5 was significantly higher as compared to the mean PSS score (27.9 ± 3.3) for students with sibling ≤5. Similarly, the mean PSS score (32.0 ± 3.4) of students with often/always occurrence of psychosocial stressors was higher as compared to the mean PSS score (28.3 ± 3.7) of those students with less than a frequent occurrence of stressors. Moreover, those students that were more stressed had lower marks in the last exam (< 80%) as compared to students with less stress who had higher marks (≥80%) (P < .05). Performance in practicals, examinations frequency, disappointment with the class lectures, lack of personal interest in medicine, lengthy academic curriculum/syllabus, worries about the future and periodic examinations performance were rated as severe. The logistic regression analysis showed that stress cases were linked with last exam marks [OR 1.26, 95% CI 0.64-2.48], number of siblings [OR 2.27, 95% CI 0.97-5.27], and academic stressor [OR 2.02, 95% CI 0.61-6.66] but no significant relationship was found.

Conclusion: There were high-stress levels among the participants of this study, and the main stressors were academic-related.

Keywords: Jeddah; Medical students; Perceived stress; Saudi Arabia; Sources of stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The Ethical Review Committee of the Faculty of Medicine, Rabigh granted the Ethical approval for this study. The objectives of the study were explained to the participants who were informed that their participation was voluntary, and anonymity was assured. A verbal consent was taken and moreover, filling out the questionnaire and submission by the student himself was considered as a declaration of willingness to participate.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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