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Abstract: Stress amongst medical students is oftenoverlooked. Intelligent students are not always the mostcomposed. This study aimed to look at both male andfemale students of three different ethnic groups and theeffects of stress in areas such as academic, social,financial and their everyday life. The Chinese studentsreported significantly less academic stress than theMalay students, and the Malay students reportedsignificantly less financial stress compared to theChinese and Indian students. Medical education can bea health hazard for medical students.

IeJSME 2007: 1 (1): 52-53Key words: stress, medical students, ethnic

A review of the literature of stress and healthidentified some common themes in different culturesin relation to stresses. 1 These include academicdemands, personal-interpersonal issues and financialresponsibilities. The effect of persistent strain anddistress symptoms on students development into caringprofessionals is of question. As medical students enterthe clinical years, their concerns change as they findthemselves unable to apply what they knew well enoughfor the examinations. 2 Medical educators and those withresponsibility for curriculum development should bemore aware of the stresses of medical life and takeprophylactic actions for the prevention of short andlong term stress related problems for medical students.The curriculum with overload of information, and theenvironment presenting multiple hurdles rather thanopportunities for assessing progress are importantsources of stress. Many students struggle with questionsabout their ability to endure the demands of education.

To this end, we studied the effect of stresses on95 medical students in the second half (secondsemester) of their first year at a private medical institute(International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia), comparing the association with gender andethnicity based on the Questionnaire Design,Interviewing & Attitude Measurement on theacademic, social, financial and everyday life factors. 3

Mean scores (+/- standard deviation) were used tocompare for differences between the different variablesbased on ANOVA across all groups and unpaired t testbetween individual groups if significance were found.

Amongst the Chinese students, 29 were males and 25were females. Amongst the Indian students, 5 weremales and 4 were females. Amongst the Malay students,4 were males and 13 were females. There weresignificant differences in mean stress scores betweenmales and females as a whole or according to theirethnicity (data not shown). The Chinese students

reported significantly less academic stress than theMalay students, and the Malay students reportedsignificantly less financial stress compared to theChinese and Indian students (Fig. 1). There were noother significant differences between the variables.

Our findings of differences in Academic andFinancial events and comparable findings in Social andEveryday Life events between ethnicity may beexplained by the vulnerable student syndrome wherethese students have different personalities related totheir backgrounds, family difficulties, lack of socialsupport and isolation. It is therefore not the surroundingmedical environment that has influenced the studentsperceptions but rather matters relating to the cultureand individual family settings.

It is clear that medical education is not an optimalstate of health and may, in fact, be a health hazard formany young and impressionable incoming medicalstudents. 4 Far-reaching reforms have, therefore,been recommended to improve medical education.These reforms include enhancing the personalmanagement skills of time management, stressmanagement, and self-evaluation management,shifting the emphasis from passive to active and self-directed learning and placing an increased emphasis onthe promotion of health and prevention of disease.Many medical curriculums are in the process of beingradically changed in the light of the GMC reportentitled Tomorrows Doctors.5 It will be important tomonitor whether these changes not only result in better

Research Note IeJSME 2007: 1 (1): 52-53

International Medical University, Plaza Komanwel, Bukit Jalil, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA

Address for correspondence:Dr. Jagmohni Kaur, International Medical University, Plaza Komanwel, Bukit Jalil, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIAE-mail: jagmohni_sidhu@imu.edu.my

Effect of Stress on Medical Students Jagmohni Kaur Sidhu

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