Association of Depression, Anxiety and Stress in Medical Students Studying in Modular, Semester and Annual Examination System

Background: When there are high demands besides less resources, a person experiences a feeling of fear that is known as “Stress”. Students of professional schools/colleges and universities are encounter more stress than the general population as they are in a transitory phase from adolescence to adulthood. It has been highlighted that medical education has greater association with stress. There are three examination systems that are been followed by medical colleges of Pakistan (modular, semester and annual systems). However, to the best of our knowledge, no data is available to show the association of stress with current examination systems in our country.

Aims: The objectives of our study were to find out the association of stress with different examination systems and to identify the frequency of stress causing and coping factors adopted by 1st, 2nd and 3rd year medical students studying in colleges having different examination systems i.e. modular, semester and annual.

Study Design: Comparative cross-sectional study.

Place & Duration of Study: This study was conducted from December 2018 to April 2019 in three medical colleges of Sindh having above mentioned examination systems.

Study Population: Medical students of 1st 2nd and 3rd year.

Methodology: To assess depression, anxiety and stress among study population, DASS Scale was used. To identify the stress causing and coping factors in the students Likert scale based proforma with 19 factors were given to the selected participants

Results: There was no significant association of examination system with depression, anxiety and stress, however various stress causing and coping factors were found significant in altering medical student`s life.

Conclusion: According to our study, the frequency of stress in the medial students has no association with the examination systems (modular, semester and annual), currently followed by the medical colleges in Sindh, Pakistan.