Future of Medical Education Journal

Future of Medical Education Journal

Perceived stress among undergraduate medical students and its association with learning strategies and academic performance in Medical College Kolkata, India

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Poulomi Mukherjee 1
Mousumi Datta 2
1 Department of Community Medicine, Medical College Kolkata, West Bengal, India
2 Department of Community Medicine, R.G Kar Medical College Kolkata, West Bengal, India
10.22038/fmej.2023.67636.1500
Abstract
Background: Stress is an inevitable and important part of being a medical student. Present study explores perceived stress among undergraduate medical students and the correlation of stress with learning strategies and academic performance.
Method: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at Medical College Kolkata, India. The target population was undergraduate medical students from phase II and III. Participants’ learning strategies was measured using the modified Approaches to Learning Medicine (mALM) questionnaire. The stress level of the students was determined by Perceived stress Scale (PSS 10). Academic performance was measured in terms of percentages scored in the last MBBS examination. Data were analysed using SPSS version 21. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for categorical variables and measures of central tendency and dispersion was calculated for continuous variables. Differences of mean were tested by independent samples t-test. Correlation was tested by Pearson correlation test.
Results: There were 136 students enrolled in the study; and 129 (94.8%) students scored above 60% in their last MBBS examination. Mean PSS score of the participants was 19.4± 4.17. One hundred and twenty-three (90.4%) students were found to have moderate stress. Deep learning approach was significantly more for MBBS Phase III students (p=0.003). However, perceived stress had no significant correlation with either learning strategy (p=0.916) or academic performance of students (p=0.309).
Conclusion: Perceived stress was found to be high among undergraduate medical students in the present study. However, any particular learning style or academic performance was not found to be associated with stress.
Keywords
Correlation of Data
Learning
Medical Education
Subjects
  1. Finkelstein C, Brownstein A, Scott C, Lan YL. Anxiety and stress reduction in medical education: an intervention. Med educ. 2007;41(3):258-64.
  2. Dahlin M, Joneborg N, Runeson B. Stress and depression among medical students: a cross-sectional study. Med educ.2005; 39:594–604.
  3. Byars JL. Stress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness of graduate counselling students: the effectiveness of group counselling and exercise (Doctoral dissertation).
  4. Dyrbye LN, Thomas MR, Shanafelt TD. Medical student distress: causes, consequences, and proposed solutions. Mayo Clin Proc. 2005;80(12):1613–22. doi: 10.4065/80.12.1613.
  5. Burger PH, Scholz M. The learning type makes the difference - the interrelation of Kolb's learning styles and psychological status of preclinical medical students at the University of Erlangen. GMS Z Med Ausbild. 2014;31(4): Doc42. doi: 10.3205/zma000934. PMID: 25489342; PMCID: PMC4259061.
  6. Paiboonsithiwong S, Kunanitthaworn N, Songtrijuck N, Wongpakaran N, Wongpakaran T. Learning styles, academic achievement, and mental health problems among medical students in Thailand. J Educ Eval Health Prof. 2016; 13:38. doi: 10.3352/jeehp.2016.13.38. PMID: 27804284; PMCID: PMC5121187.
  7. Bhalli MA, Khan IA, Sattar A. Learning style of medical students and its correlation with preferred teaching methodologies and academic achievement. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. 2015;27(4):837-42. PMID: 27004335.
  8. Ramezani G, Norouzi A, Arabshahi SKS, Sohrabi Z, Zazoli AZ, Saravani S, Pourbairamian G. Study of medical students' learning approaches and their association with academic performance and problem-solving styles. J Educ Health Promot. 2022;11:252. doi: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_900_21. PMID: 36325210; PMCID: PMC9621383.
  9. Hernández-Torrano D, Ali S, Chan CK. First year medical students' learning style preferences and their correlation with performance in different subjects within the medical course. BMC Med Educ. 2017;17(1):131. doi: 10.1186/s12909-017-0965-5. PMID: 28789690; PMCID: PMC5549383.
  10. Shah DK, Yadav RL, Sharma D, Yadav PK, Sapkota NK, Jha RK et al. Learning approach among health sciences students in a medical college in Nepal: a cross-sectional study. Adv Med Educ Pract. 2016;7:137-43. doi: 10.2147/AMEP.S100968. PMID: 27019603; PMCID: PMC4786058.
  11. Chiu, YC, Liang, JC., Hsu HY., Chu TS., Lin KH., Chen YY et al. To examine the associations between medical students’ conceptions of learning, strategies to learning, and learning outcome in a medical humanities course. BMC Med Educ 19, 410 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1856-8
  12. Sohail N. Stress and academic performance among medical students. J Coll Physicians Surg Pak. 2013;23:67–71.
  13. Ranasinghe P, Wathurapatha WS, Mathangasinghe Y, Ponnamperuma G. Emotional intelligence, perceived stress and academic performance of Sri Lankan medical undergraduates. BMC Med Educ. 2017;17(1):41. doi: 10.1186/s12909-017-0884-5. PMID: 28219419; PMCID: PMC5319135.
  14. Chowdhury R, Mukherjee A, Mitra K, Naskar S, Karmakar PR, Lahiri SK. Perceived psychological stress among undergraduate medical students: Role of academic factors. Indian J Public Health. 2017;61(1):55-57. doi: 10.4103/0019-557X.200253. PMID: 28218165.
  15. The Gazette of India (Internet). 2022. Government of India. (cited 2022 June 10th) https://www.nmc.org.in/ActivitiWebClient/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/Gazette/GME-06.11.2019.pdf
  16. Chen JY, Chin WY, Tiwari A, Wong J, Wong IC, Worsley A, et al. Validation of the perceived stress scale (PSS-10) in medical and health sciences students in Hong Kong. The Asia Pacific Scholar. 2021;6(2):31-7.
  17. Zvauya R, Oyebode F, Day EJ, Thomas CP, Jones LA. A comparison of stress levels, coping styles and psychological morbidity between graduate-entry and traditional undergraduate medical students during the first 2 years at a UK medical school. BMC Res Notes. 2017;10(1):93. doi: 10.1186/s13104-017-2395-1. PMID: 28193287; PMCID: PMC5307866.
  18. Behzadnia A, Smith DR, Goodson ML. A cross-sectional examination of the relationship between approaches to learning and perceived stress among medical students in Malaysia. Educ Health (Abingdon). 2018;31(2):80-86. doi: 10.4103/efh.EfH_280_17. PMID: 30531049.
  19. Amhare AF, Jian L, Wagaw LM, Qu C, Han J. Magnitude and associated factors of perceived stress and its consequence among undergraduate students of Salale University, Ethiopia: cross-sectional study. Psychol Health Med. 2021;26(10):1230-1240. doi: 10.1080/13548506.2020.1808234. Epub 2020 Aug 12. PMID: 32783647.
  20. Bin Eid A, Almizani M, Alzahrani A, Alomair F, Albinhamad A, Albarrak Y, et al. Examining Learning Styles with Gender Comparison Among Medical Students of a Saudi University. Adv Med Educ Pract. 2021;12:309-318. doi: 10.2147/AMEP.S295058. Erratum in: Adv Med Educ Pract. 2022 May 31;13:593-594. PMID: 33840998; PMCID: PMC8032450.
  21. Taheri M, Falahchai M, Javanak M, Hemmati YB, Bozorgi MD. Analyzing the relationship between learning styles (Kolb and VARK) and creativity with the academic achievement of dental students. J Educ Health Promot. 2021;10:252. doi: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_1492_20. PMID: 34485549; PMCID: PMC8395887.
  22. Kötter T, Wagner J, Brüheim L, Voltmer E. Perceived Medical School stress of undergraduate medical students predicts academic performance: an observational study. BMC Med Educ. 2017;17(1):256. doi: 10.1186/s12909-017-1091-0. PMID: 29246231; PMCID: PMC5732510.
  23. Lyons Z, Wilcox H, Leung L, Dearsley O. COVID-19 and the mental well-being of Australian medical students: impact, concerns and coping strategies used. Australas Psychiatry. 2020;28(6):649-52. doi: 10.1177/1039856220947945. Epub 2020 Aug 10. PMID: 32772729; PMCID: PMC7424607.
Future of Medical Education Journal
Volume 13, Issue 3
Summer 2023
Pages 41-46