Sources and Severity of Stress in Various Domains among First Year Medical Students and its Relationship with their Academic Performance: A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: First year medical students are the most vulnerable group to experience stress in their newenvironment in the field of medicine. The present study evaluated perceived stress among them along withits correlation with academic performance.Method: An Indian adaptation of the Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire (MSSQ) was used to determinethe effect of stress on the academic performance of students. Responses were correlated with their respective1st professional exam marks.Results: Stress due to examinations was reported by 24.5% students and due to excess syllabus by 33%.Some students (11.8%) experienced severe stress due to relationship issues, due to unjustified gradingprocess (10.4%) and health issues. Females had more academic and group activity related stress as comparedto males. The students who participated in sports or cultural societies had higher Drive and Desire relatedstress levels in contrast to the non-participants. The interpersonal & intrapersonal relatedstress (IRS score)of students was negatively correlated with their academic performance. The increased stress among femaleparticipants was related to an improved academic performance in them.Conclusions: Too much stress negatively interfered with student’s preparation, concentration andperformance while positive stress helped student achieve peak performance.