Abstract

Comparison of Sources and Severity of Perceived Stress between Paramedical and Medical Students

Author(s):Farah Moayedi, Mohammad Mohajer Bastami, Fazilat Pour Ashouri, Hosein Hamadiyan and Sepehr Rasekhi

Medical and paramedical students need high qualities of mental health as a prerequisite of learning and also clinical performance. However, studying medicine and paramedicine, by themselves, seem to be stressful. The present research was conducted with the objective of determining and comparing the sources and severity of stress between medical and paramedical students. A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey was carried out among the 40 medical and 40 paramedical students of Hormozgan University of Medical Science (HUMS) in October, 2015. A three part self-administered questionnaire was used for data gathering. Part one was designed for demographic characteristics including age, gender, term and field of education while the second and third parts consisted of Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14) and a 32-item list of potential stressors, respectively. Stress sources were determined using logistic regression analysis. The overall PSS mean score of the students was 20.04±11.57 (23.70±12.85 for medical and 16.38±8.88 for paramedical students). Among the 80 subjects, 22 cases (27.5%) had perceived stress (PSS-14 score more than 28), 6 cases were paramedical students while the others (16 cases) were medical students. Logistic regression analysis indicated phase of education, age, academic, psychosocial and health related factors as sources of stress in medical students while phase of education, age, gender and psychosocial factors were reported as the sources of stress in paramedical students. The prevalence of perceived stress was higher in medical students rather than paramedical ones mainly due to academic and health related factors.

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