a Public Health, School of Medicine , Universidad Nacional de Colombia , Bogotá , Colombia.
b School of Medicine , Universidad de Ciencias Aplicadas y Ambientales. U.D.C.A , Bogotá , Colombia.
Psychol Health Med. 2019 Sep;24(8):936-950. doi: 10.1080/13548506.2019.1612078. Epub 2019 May 3.
Mental health problems among undergraduate medical students is a well-known issue; however, their associated risk factors have been poorly studied. We aimed to assess the hypothesis that medical students have a higher prevalence of psychological distress and to explain this prevalence considering common risk factors for mental disorders. This was a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based descriptive study conducted with 467 Colombian undergraduate medical students from different years of training. Validated and widely used self-report questionnaires of psychological distress, daytime sleepiness, and family functioning were included. In addition, measurements of smoking, alcohol, and caffeine intake were used. We found a prevalence of psychological distress, depressive symptoms and anxiety symptomatology of 65.9%, 75.3%, and 50.5%, respectively. Furthermore, 20.6% showed both psychological distress and excessive daytime sleepiness. Adjusted risk ratio analysis showed that poor family functioning, the presence of excessive daytime sleepiness, and caffeine consumption were significant risk factors for high levels of psychological distress. Additionally, psychological distress and daytime sleepiness were related to the year of training. Our results replicate in part previous findings of poor mental health among undergraduate medical students compared with mental health in general population and provide novel findings that family functioning plays a significant role as an important explanatory factor. The current study has high relevance for future research and interventions focused on prevention of medical errors, conflicts in the physician-patient relationship and the personal safety of undergraduate medical students.
医学生心理健康问题是一个众所周知的问题；然而，其相关的危险因素研究甚少。我们旨在评估医学生心理困扰发生率更高的假设，并从常见的精神障碍危险因素来解释这种发生率。这是一项在不同培训阶段的 467 名哥伦比亚医学生中进行的基于问卷调查的横断面描述性研究。纳入了经过验证和广泛使用的心理困扰、日间嗜睡和家庭功能的自我报告问卷。此外，还测量了吸烟、饮酒和咖啡因的摄入。我们发现心理困扰、抑郁症状和焦虑症状的发生率分别为 65.9%、75.3%和 50.5%。此外，20.6%的人同时存在心理困扰和日间嗜睡。调整后的风险比分析表明，家庭功能不良、日间嗜睡和咖啡因摄入是心理困扰程度高的显著危险因素。此外，心理困扰和日间嗜睡与培训年限有关。我们的研究结果部分复制了以前的研究结果，即在一般人群中，医学生的心理健康状况较差，而家庭功能是一个重要的解释因素，这是一个新的发现。本研究对未来以预防医疗差错、医患关系冲突和医学生个人安全为重点的研究和干预具有重要意义。
