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Introduction: As the prevalence of stress is rising rapidly among the community, it is important to understand their stressors and coping strategies for creating a psychological-friendly environment for the students in the future. The study aim was to explore the stress level, stressors, and coping strategies among first year medical students in Malaysian public universities and factors contributed to the stress at the end of year. Methodology: A multicenter cross-sectional study involving four Malaysian public universities. The 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire (MSSQ) and Brief COPE inventory were self-administered to measure stress level, sources of stress and coping strategies respectively among the participants. Calculated sample size was 387. Results: Out of 387 selected participants, 359 (92.7%) responded to this survey. This study found that the prevalence of distressed first year medical students at the end of year was 50%. The major stressors across the universities were academic-related issues. The top five coping strategies were religion, active coping, positive reinterpretation, acceptance and planning. University, parent income, and academic, group activities, and desire related stressors were significant factors contributing to the students’ stress (p-value < 0.05). Conclusion: This study found that there was a high prevalence of distressed among first year medical students at the end of year, the major stressors were related to academic and contributing factors of stress were related to university, coping strategy, types of stressor and parent income status. Training first year medical students on adaptive coping strategies, managing stressors, and improving peer-group supports to the students will help to improve this condition.

Many studies have shown that the prevalence of psychological distress among medical students during medical training is higher than that in general population. A few studies have shown that the prevalence of psychological distress among medical students before the onset of medical training was similar to general population. This study aimed to investigate psychological health of medical students before and during medical training. A one-year prospective study was done on successful applicants who undergo the first year of medical training for 2010/2011 academic session. The stress, anxiety and depression were measured by the DASS-21 at five intervals; during interview (Time 0), two months (Time 1), four months (Time 2), six months (Time 3) and final examination (Time 4) of the first year medical training. The prevalence of unfavourable stress, anxiety and depression before the onset of medical training was 4.1%, 55.6% and 1.8%, respectively. The prevalence of unfavourable stress during medical training ranged between 11.8% and 19.9%. The prevalence of anxiety during medical training ranged between 41.1% and 56.7%. The prevalence of depression during medical training ranged between 12% and 30%. Mean scores of stress and depression before (Time 0) and during medical training (Time 1-4) were significantly different (p < 0.001). The prevalence and level of unfavourable stress and depression during medical training were significantly higher than before the onset medical training. This study supports views that medical training is not an optimal environment to psychological health of medical students.

Background. Hypertension is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of hypertension in a population of male bus drivers in North Kerala, India. Methods. The study population included male bus drivers of Corporation Bus stand Kozhikode, Kerala. Blood pressure, height, and weight of subjects were measured, and relevance was obtained using a structured questionnaire. Results. Age varied from 21 to 60 years (mean 36.5 ± 8.4). Among 179 bus drivers studied, 16.8% (30/179) had normal BP, 41.9% (75/179) had prehypertension, and 41.3% (74/179) had hypertension. Isolated systolic HTN was seen in 6.70% (12/179) individuals. Out of 74 hypertensives, 9 (12.1%) were aware of their hypertension, while 3 (4.0%) were medicated and only 1 (1.3%) had BP adequately controlled. Age > 35 years (P = 0.015), BMI ≥ 23 kg/m2 (P = 0.007), supporting more than four family members (P = 0.011), and taking main meals from restaurants on most working days (P = 0.017) were independently associated with HTN in binary logistic regression. Conclusion. Prevalence of hypertension was high among bus drivers. Age > 35 years, elevated BMI, supporting a large family, and dietary habits associated with the job showed significant association with hypertension. Primary and secondary prevention strategies need to be emphasized in this occupational group.

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