Abstract

Background: High levels of stress and psychological morbidity occur in health-care professional students.

Objective: The objective of this study was to estimate psychological well-being, perceived stress level, and coping abilities among medical and paramedical students.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study carried out in a tertiary care hospital, West Uttar Pradesh, India. The total study period was from September 2019 to November 2019 with a sample of 145 medical students aged 17–25 years and 81 paramedical students aged 19–33 years. Ethical clearance was obtained from the College Ethical Committee. We used self-administered, three different types of validated tools for data collection. Data were analyzed using SPSS Version 20.

Results: The median age of paramedical and medical trainees was 22 and 21 years, respectively. Family history of mental illness was 21% and 5.5%, respectively. On general health questionnaire-12 scale, 9% of paramedical trainees reported evidence of distress and 91% of severe problem and psychological distress while 19% of medical trainees having evidence of distress and 81% of severe problem and psychological distress. On perceived stress scale-10 (PSS-10) scale, 15% of paramedical trainees reported average level, 27% moderate level, and 55% high level of perceived stress while 2% of medical trainees having average, 19% moderate level, and 79% high level of perceived stress, respectively. The difference in mean score on PSS-10 and Brief COPE scale between paramedics and medical trainees group was found statistically significant (P < 0.05).

Conclusion: We concluded the higher level of severe problem and psychological distress in the paramedical and high level of perceived stress in medical trainees. Paramedical trainees practice a better coping mechanism than medical trainees.

Key words: Coping Abilities; Medical/Paramedical Trainee; Stress; West Uttar Pradesh