Survey of Stress, Anxiety and Depression in Paramedical students of Birjand University of Medical Sciences, 2016

Mental health is one of the most important aspects of the health of students and the prevalence of related diseases is increasing among students. The purpose of this study was to investigate depression, anxiety, and stress in paramedical students of Birjand University of Medical Sciences in 2016.

In this cross-sectional study, 165 paramedical students from Birjand University of Medical Sciences were selected with the Stratified Sampling method, during the year 2016. The data collection tools were DASS-21 for measuring Stress, Anxiety, and Depression, and also a demographic questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS 16 software and inferential statistics software such as evaluation of Chi-square test, t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).

The findings of this study indicated that average degrees of stress, anxiety, and depression among students were 13.91 ± 4.25, 12.15 ± 4.00 and 11.94 ± 3.93 out of 28 points. The finding showed that 11.5% of students suffered from stress, 61% anxiety and 30.3% depression. There was a statistically significant difference between depression and semester (P < 0.05).

Due to the psychological problems of paramedical students, planning and special attention of the authorities is necessary. Therefore, it is suggested to take steps to improve the mental health of students of this future maker group by recognizing the psychological problems of the students.