A study of stress, knowledge about self-management of stress and the academic performance among medical students of the Faculty of Health-Care Sciences during their phase-1 exam

Abstract

According to the WHO, stress can be defined as any type of change that causes physical, emotional or psychological strain. Stress is our body’s response to any thing that requires attention or action. Everyone experiences stress to some degree. The way we respond to stress, however, make a big difference to our overall well-being. Stress can manifest as fear, worry, inability to relax, increased heart rate, difficulty in breathing, Disturbance in sleeping patterns, change in eating patterns, difficulty in concentrating worsening of pre-existing health conditions (physical and mental) and increased use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. Although minimal amount of stress is desirable and is necessary to spark in a healthy competitive spirit, undue stress has undesirable impact on students. The objective of the study is to study the stress, knowledge about self-management of stress and the academic performance among medical students of Faculty of Health Care Sciences during their phase-1 exam. Descriptive Cross-sectional study was conducted among medical students of the Faculty of Health Care Sciences who have done phase-1 exam and got the results. Complete enumeration method used and data was collected via Google form. Variables were analyzed using SPSS.27. Among the participants 2.8% of medical students have low stress level, 85% of medical students have moderate stress level and 12% of students have high perceived stress (Table 4.22). Among the medical students who are participated to the questionnaire 48.3% have weak coping skills and 51.7% have strong coping skills (Table 4.24). The Pearson chi-square test was used to analyze the association between knowledge about self-management of stress and their academic performance. In the test, we obtained a pearson chi-square value of 10.982, a degree of freedom (df) of 1, a p value of <0.001, and a likelihood ratio of 11.109(Table 4.1). And also another chisquare test has been done to analyze the association between level of stress and their academic performance. In here, we obtained a person chi-square value of 0.068, a degree of freedom (df) of 1, a p value of 0.794, and a likelihood ratio of 0.069(Table4.31). Our study concluded that the prevalence of stress among medical students during the phase 1 exam period was high, and most of them had a moderate to high level of stress. According to respondents, students who were strongly engaged with stress coping skills and students who were poorly engaged with the coping skills were nearly equal. Participants with strong stress coping skills had good academic performance, and most of the low academic performers had weak stress coping skills. But there isn't a significant relationship between stress level and academic performance.