A Comparative Study of Perceived Stress among Female Medical and Non-Medical University Students in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to investigate any differences between female undergraduate medical and non-medical students for: 1) prevalence and causes of perceived academic stress, and 2) changes in physical, mental, psychological and emotional health as well as life-style since starting college studies. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted at Dammam University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia, in January 2008. All 319 pre-clinical female medical students were included in the study and 297 non-medical students from the College of Applied Studies and Community Services (CASCS) were selected by stratified random sampling. The study instrument was a questionnaire on the "Influence of Studying on Students' Health". RESULTS More medical students (48.6%) reported being frequently stressed due to studies than CASCS students (38.7%, P <0.01). Unsuitable teaching methods, an unsatisfactory study environment, and fear of failure in examinations were more frequently mentioned by medical than non-medical students (P <0.05). While underlying social problems were significantly more common in medical students, economic problems were more prevalent among CASCS students (P <0.05, P <0.05). More medical than non-medical students reported a worse status of physical and mental health, anxiety and depression and negative life-style changes since initiation of the college programme. CONCLUSION Medical students were at higher risk of physical and mental health problems than non-medical students due to academic stress. Since a substantial proportion of CASCS students also experienced academic stress, we recommend that a student support committee be established for both colleges to provide counselling and guidance in healthy ways to cope with stress.

• Publication year

  2010

• Venue

  Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal

• Publication date

  2010-06-19

• Fields of study

  Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.18295/2075-0528.1192PMID 21509235PMCID PMC3074699
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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