Abstract

Background: Medicine is a physically, emotionally demanding career and training. Several studies have documented that stress is prevalent among medical professionals. There are very few studies available to determine the prevalence of stress in resident doctors and interns in India.

Objective: To assess the stress and depression levels amongst medical interns and residents at a tertiary care teaching hospital in rural India.

Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in rural India. Study participants included medical interns and residents working in the clinical setup and directly relating to patient care. Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale was used for assessment of depression amongst the participants and a self structured stress questionnaire was administered to evaluate the stress levels. All the data obtained was analyzed using the software StatistiXL version 1.8.

Results: Mean age of the interns and residents was 24.3 ± 1.8 and 26.4 ± 2.1 respectively. There was no statistical difference in the socio-demographic parameters like gender (p=0.14); religion (p=0.86); family type (p=0.04); educational status of parents (p=0.32) and number of attempts taken to pass MBBS (p=0.80) amongst the interns and the residents recruited in the survey. The Zung Self assessment depression scale response of the interns and the residents reveals that 32% of the interns and 26% of the residents were mildly depressed. There was no statistical difference (p= 0.83) found in the stress levels of the interns and the residents on the cumulative stress scoring.

Conclusion: Appropriate and effective measures are warranted to reduce stress levels amongst the junior doctors who are involved in the first hand care of patients. Further studies are warranted to keep a check on the stress levels amongst junior doctors.

Key words: Stress, Depression, Resident doctors, Interns