Academic-induced Lifestyle Changes in Student Physician Assistants.

Rasmussen, J.; Frazier, E. Ann; Gietzen, Jonathon W.

doi:10.1097/01720610-200707000-00042

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…Furthermore, all 4 risk factors-anxiety, stress, depression, and burnout-had a higher frequency during the didactic phase than in the clinical phase, which is supported by previous research. 13 For both the didactic and clinical phases, stress was the dominant risk factor among PA-S. The modified mean PSS combined score reported by PA student respondents was 5.02, which places it in the upper brackets of the moderate stress region as defined by the PSS instrument.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…6,7,10 Some studies found that PA-S experience a high amount of stress 3,6,11,12 and exhibit the lowest quality of life during the didactic phase of their edu-cation. 8,13 Available studies on 4-year medical students demonstrate that high levels of burnout, anxiety, and depression put students at a higher risk for substance use. [3][4][5][6][7][8] The primary aim of this research was to address these gaps in the literature by investigating substance use solely among PA-S, during the didactic and clinical phases of a program, along with associated risk factors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Substance Use Among Physician Assistant Students: A National Study on the Prevalence of Alcohol, Tobacco, Illicit Substances, and Medication Use

Carim

Keller

Greene

et al. 2023

J Physician Assist Educ

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Introduction The purpose of this study was to discover the substance use prevalence among physician assistant students (PA-S) compared with the age-relevant general US population and to examine the frequency of stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression during the didactic and clinical phases, while accounting for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods A 20-item survey instrument was created. Selfreported data included demographics, anxiety, burnout, tobacco, illicit substances, and prescription medication use. Outcome-based inventories included a modified Perceived Stress Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2), and Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test-Concise. The survey was emailed to all US programs (270 programs; 25,000 students), with 54 programs approving dissemination to their students (n4,760). ResultsOf the 1432 responses (30% response rate, 96% completion rate), the final validated sample was 1378 students (56.1% didactic, 43.8% clinical). When compared with the national population, PA-S prevalence for tobacco (5.2%) and illicit substance use (9.9%) were notably lower; alcohol (53.5%) was comparable; and prescription medication (7.0%) is only reported for PA students due to the lack of a national comparison. A higher frequency of substance use was observed during the didactic (52.5%) vs clinical (47.5%) phases. Stress was the dominant factor in both phases (93.5% didactic, 86.1% clinical). Respondents reported that the COVID-19 pandemic had minimal impact on reported rates, other than alcohol.Discussion Although PA-S substance use prevalence is at or below the national population, PA programs are encouraged to review their policies and provide conversations and resources for students who may have one or more risk factors and experience a negative effect from current substance use.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%