Medical Students’ Syndrome–A Myth or Reality?:A Cross Sectional Study among Medical Students of Jouf University, Saudi Arabia

Background: Prevalence of stress, anxiety and depression among medical students are high all over the world. It has been attributed by huge amount of psychological stress due to the constant work required, frequent examinations. Medical student syndrome (MSS) is a condition commonly reported among medical students, that they repeatedly develop anxiety and symptoms of ill health of diseases of what they are studying.

Objectives: To assess the prevalence and risk factors of medical students’ syndrome among Jouf university medical students.

Materials and Method: An analytical cross sectional study done among the medical students of Jouf University in Saudi Arabia by using standard and validated student health questionnaire. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 20 was used to enter and analyze data. Descriptive statistics were presented as number and percentage. Chi square test was used to identify the risk factors and p value less than 0.05 is considered as statistically significant.

Results: Medical students’ syndrome found among 58 (16.11%) students of the 360 participants and was statistically significant (p<.05) among the students with less than 22 years of age, who studied basic sciences and smokers (daily and rarely).

Conclusion: Health education programs in medical schools should be implemented to improve their mental health status. This has to be implemented from the first year of their Hence, they can work effectively for the health of the people in the community.