Anxiety and depression during post covid-19 lockdown period among medical students, and it’s relation with stress and smartphone addiction in India

Nivetha Vengadessin; Premkumar Ramasubramani; Ganesh Kumar Saya

doi:10.1515/ijamh-2023-0180

Article

Anxiety and depression during post covid-19 lockdown period among medical students, and it’s relation with stress and smartphone addiction in India

Nivetha Vengadessin , Premkumar Ramasubramani and Ganesh Kumar Saya

Published/Copyright: April 2, 2024

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From the journal International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health Volume 36 Issue 2

Abstract

Objectives

Medical profession, a competitive and ever-updating field which requires great commitment, imposes a stressful environment for students. Our study aimed to find the prevalence and factors associated with psychological illness.

Methods

A cross-sectional analytical study was done among medical students in Puducherry. A stratified random sampling strategy was incorporated to achieve a calculated sample size of 384. The presence of anxiety and depression, perceived stress and addiction to the phone were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Perceived Stress Scale, and Smartphone Addiction Scale – short version. Prevalence of anxiety and depression was summarized as a proportion with a 95 % confidence interval (CI). The prevalence ratio (PR) for the factors associated was estimated using log-binomial regression.

Results

With the response from 383 students, the prevalence of anxiety and depression was 39.4 % (95 %CI: 34.5–44.3 %) and 26.6 % (22.2–31.1 %). Perceived stress was moderate in 68.2 % and high in 14 % of students. Higher age (aPR=1.49), female gender (aPR=1.22), tobacco or alcohol use (aPR=1.24), smartphone addiction (aPR=2.09) and high stress (aPR=1.93) were the predictors of anxiety among medical students in our study. Use of tobacco or alcohol (aPR=2.07), smartphone addiction (aPR=1.96) and high stress (aPR=1.72) were the predictors of depression.

Conclusions

Anxiety was more prevalent than depression among the medical students. Use of tobacco or alcohol, smartphone addiction and stress increase the risk of psychological morbidity. Medical training should have a module on coping mechanisms to overcome psychological illness and have better mental well-being.

Keywords: anxiety; depression; stress; smartphone addiction; medical students; India

Corresponding author: Ganesh Kumar Saya, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, India, E-mail: sssgan@yahoo.com

Acknowledgments

Authors are thankful to all the study participants. This study was carried out as a project under the Indian Council of Medical Research through Short Term Studentship Program.

Research ethics: The study was approved by Institute Ethics Committee of Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIP/IEC/2020/221).
Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study.
Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission. Nivetha Vengadess in involved in conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, wrote the original draft and review. Premkumar Ramasubramani involved in conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, methodology, project administration, resources, software, supervision, validation, visualization, wrote the original draft and review, and edited the manuscript. Ganesh Kumar Saya involved in data curation, methodology, project administration, resources, supervision, validation, visualization and edited the manuscript.
Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.
Research funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Data availability: The raw data can be obtained on request from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Received: 2023-11-10

Accepted: 2024-03-15

Published Online: 2024-04-02

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/ijamh-2023-0180

Keywords for this article

anxiety; depression; stress; smartphone addiction; medical students; India