Depression, anxiety, and stress among medical students of College of Medicine, Hawler Medical University, Erbil, Iraq

摘要

Background and objective: Students of the college of medicine involve in a hard studyand training for six years; which might adversely affect the student's mental health andphysical condition. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of depression, anxiety,and stress among medical students, and its association with different sociodemographicvariables.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among students of the College ofMedicine, Hawler Medical University from April to May 2017. This study includeda randomly selected sample of 288 students. The Depression, Anxiety, and StressScale-21 (DASS-21) questionnaire was used to collect data. The statistical package for thesocial sciences was used for data analysis. Pearson Chi-square and Fisher's Exact Testwere used to finding the association between various variables and depression, anxiety,and stress.Results: The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among medical students were52.1%, 62.5%, and 45.1%, respectively. Male students were found to be more depressedthan female students (63.6% vs. 42.3%) with a statistically significant association(P 0.001). Anxiety and stress were not significantly associated with gender. Anxietyamong students from rural areas (88.9%) was significantly (P = 0.021) higher than studentsfrom urban areas (60.7%). The association of depression, anxiety, and stress with othervariables was not significant.Conclusion: The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among students was high.Male students were regarded as a risk factor for depression, while students from the ruralareas were regarded at risk of anxiety.