Stress levels among undergraduate medical students in the College of Health Sciences at the University of Zimbabwe

Abstract

Objectives: To identify the prevalence of stress levels among undergraduate medical students and the perceived stressors.
Design: Descriptive cross sectional study.
Setting: Anatomy Department, College of Health Sciences (CHS), University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Subjects: Randomly selected and consenting first and second year medical students were recruited and they completed the Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) questionnaire between November and December 2016.
Results: A total of 100 students were recruited for this study and there were 56 males and 44 females. The students were observed to have different levels of stress. Eight students (8%) had low perceived stress (PSS10 score of 0-13), while 68 students (68%) had moderate perceived stress (PSS-10 score of 14-26), and 24 students (24%) had high perceived stress (PSS-10 score of 27-40). The overall mean perceived stress score was 21.81 (SD = 5.49). Academic overload (73%), fear of failure (68%), quizzes and examinations (53%), high family expectations (35%), inadequate financial resources (31%), low motivation (29%), competition among fellow students (29%), financial problems (27%), university policy of accumulative average or continuous assessment in the case of the CHS (25%), and overcrowded lecture halls (14%) were found to be the top ten stressors.
Conclusion: The results revealed that 92% of undergraduate medical students who participated in the study had moderate to high perceived stress levels and that the top three major stressors were mostly academic related problems. These findings demonstrated that the issue of stress among undergraduate medical students needs urgent intervention in order to address the major stressors and also to enable appropriate interventions to be implemented.