Abstract

ASSESSMENT OF STRESS LEVEL AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AND LOCAL POPULATION

Dr. Maqsood Ahmed Khan*, Dr. Sadaf Merchant, Dr. Faiza Majeed, Dr. Shumaila Shiwani, Dr. Zohra Zindani, Imran Ali, Zeb Unisa, Dr. Rasheeda Fatima, Dr. Sarwat Jahan and Dr. Mudassar Hussain

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that university students are particularly susceptible to feelings of stress. Stress in medical education is common and process-oriented. It often exerts a negative effect on their academic performance, physical health, and psychological wellbeing. This study aimed to assess the stress level experienced by students and others at a private university and the factors most associated with this stress. Current study is an observational prospective study. Stress levels of participants were tested through applying questionnaire of International Stress Management Association. A total of 250 Individuals participated in the study. The participants were randomly selected. Study was conducted in four months period from September to December 2016. Descriptive statistics and chi square were used to analyze the study data using SPSS. It was observed that out of 250 participant 8(3.2%) posses less stress, 138 (55.2%) posses moderate stress, 104 (41.6%) posses high stress.). Based on qualification 68 (42.77%) of participant with a qualification of graduation were with high stress. the difference was statistically significant (p=0.001). Based on residence 36 (65.454%) of participant reside in DHA were with high stress and the difference was statistically significant (p= 0.000). The researches recommend that university decision makers have to provide students with a psychological, social and academic counseling in order to decrease the students stress. So they can achieve better and have a good mental health. They have to involve students with different activities to reduce the gaps between them; also they have to provide students with a suitable teaching and learning methods in order to decrease their academic stress.

Keywords: Stress, physical health, and psychological wellbeing.