Abstract
BACKGROUND
The process of professional education is often stressful. Various studies across the globe have emphasized that students undertaking professional courses, such as medical and engineering studies are subjected to higher stress. Excessive stress could lead to psychological problems like depression, anxiety and also it may cause suicides.
OBJECTIVES OF STUDY.
To assess the prevalence of stress among medical and engineering 1st year students.
To study the association of stress with various academic, social and health-related factors, in the professional courses like medical and engineering.
To compare the factors causing stress in both medical and engineering students.
METHODOLOGY
Place of Study: Katuri Medical College and Hospital, Guntur.
SAMPLE SIZE
100 medical and 100 engineering students A pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire was used as the study instrument. It was developed with the help of published literature and finalized after a pilot study. The questionnaire was divided into three sections. First section includes the collection of Sociocultural and demographic data. Second section consists of effect of academic stressors on the life of the subject. Third section includes effect of health, life style and environmental stressors. In health, Zung Depression scale was utilized in scoring the depression levels in the study subjects.
Study Period
Month of April 2015. Software Used: MS Office, EPI Info 2002.
RESULTS
In the present study in medical course, 63% were found to be females and 37% were found to be males. In engineering, 54% were found to be males and 46% were found to be females. Respondents were belonging to the age group 18-22 years in both medical and engineering courses; 62% of medical students, 36% of engineering students were witnessing stress in their lives.
DISCUSSION
In the present study, stress was more in medical course than engineering owing to the overloaded syllabus. It is observed in the study that academic factors do have much impact on the life of the students.
CONCLUSION
Stress reducing techniques need to be encouraged in professional courses and counsellors for the effective addressing and solving the problems is required in all professional courses.