Levels and sources of Covid-19 stress in medical sciences students regarding the related factors

Education in the medical sciences, which somehow deals with the health and lives of human beings, seems to be a stressful experience, and this stress is greater than ever during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study endeavored to examine the levels and sources of Covid-19 stress in medical students and related factors.

In this cross-sectional analytical study, 423 students of Saveh University of Medical Sciences participated in the academic year 2021. The instrumentation was the COVID-19 related Healthcare Students Stress Scale which was used after validation and reliability. Data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical methods (independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance) at a significant level of 0.05.

The mean standardized score of Covid-19 stress (out of 4 scores) in the areas of fear of catching coronavirus 3.31±0.98, changes in education 3.01± 0.77, non-compliance of health protocols 2.28±0.81, social constraints were 2.11±0.95, and worrying news and overload information was 2.09±0.95. There was a statistically significant relationship between Covid-19 stress score with field of study, gender and academic year (p<0.05). There was no significant relationship between age and place of residence with Covid-19 stress score (p>0.05).

Covid-19 stress was high in students, accordingly it seems essential that medical sciences students have the ability to cope with stress, and also should identify the sources of Covid-19 stress in students and take supportive measures to eliminate or reduce sources of stress.