Prevalence of Impostor Phenomenon and its Association with Depression among MBBS Students of Muzaffarnagar Medical College at Uttar Pradesh state of India

Abstract

Background: The impostor phenomenon and is an internal experience of intellectual phoniness that those who feel fraudulence and worthlessness have despite outstanding academic or professional accomplishment. Medical students should have less impostor tendencies to become successful medical practitioners. This study was carried out on medical students of batch 2018 and 2019, to determine the prevalence of the impostor phenomenon and its association with depression among MBBS students of Muzaffarnagar Medical College.Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted among 150 students. Clance’s impostor phenomenon scale and CES-D were used to assess Impostor characteristics and depression respectively. Data was collected using the offline survey method.Results: This study conducted on 100 students of Muzaffarnagar Medical College and Hospital showed that 39% of students had severe impostor tendencies, out of which 46% were females and 54% were males. Moderate impostor tendencies were found to be 53% (56% in females and 44% in males). The mild impostor tendencies were present in 8% of participants. During the study, it was found that 28% of participants had severe impostor tendencies along with severe depression including 57% females and 43% males.Conclusions: Proper measures are required to be taken to enhance the skill, confidence, and decision-making of medical students to avoid problems of anxiety and depression in their future life. This will also lead to an improvement in the quality of medical services as if a medical student will be healthy, only then they can help in serving people better and building a healthy nation.