Academic stress and its Psychological impact on Undergraduate Medical Students during COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 is an emerging disease has a wide range of effects on all spheres of life, students’ academicperformance and psychological health in particular. Objective: To assess the academic stress and its psychologicalimpact on undergraduate medical students during COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: A descriptivecross-sectional study was conducted among 311 under-graduate medical students of purposively selected fiveprivate medical colleges in Dhaka, Shariatpur and Kishoreganj districts from August to December 2021. PerceivedStress (PS) was measured with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), data were collected using pretested mailedquestionnaire. Results: Mean age of the respondents was 21.22 ± 1.18 years; 181(58.20%) of the participantswere females, 265(85.2%) were Muslim. About three-fourths 221(71.06%) had no inclination to online learning,203(65.27%) had limited or restricted online network status; 160(51.45%) felt stress due to frequent examinations.More than one-third 106(34.08%) never experienced peer competition. Two-thirds 208(66.88%) of the respodentshad moderate, 64(20.6%) low level and 39(12.5%) had high level of Perceived Stress Score (PSS) with meanPS score of 18.43±7.35. The mean PS score was low in the age group of 25 to 29 years which is statisticallysignificant (p<0.05), PS score was significant for attending year (p<0.05). Two-fifths 130(41.80%) male studentshad higher mean perceived stress score than their female counterparts which is insignificant statistical (p>0.05). Conclusion: The participants were incompetent to handle personal problems; incapable to control irritability andstress; fail to cope with the assigned tasks; get nervous, feel anger and get agitated for facing unexpected events.