Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 34224, Saudi Arabia.
College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
BMC Psychiatry. 2022 Jul 27;22(1):505. doi: 10.1186/s12888-022-04147-z.
Social Anxiety disorder (SAD) is common worldwide. However, data from Saudi Arabia is deficient. This study aims to determine the prevalence of SAD across Saudi medical students and its associations with sociodemographic factors and their academic performance.
The main outcome was presence/absence of SAD and the secondary outcome was its level of severity. These were assessed from the Social Phobia Inventory. Associated factors included sociodemographic variables, as well as educational characteristics of students. Descriptive statistics were reported as counts and percentages, and unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed through bivariate and multivariate logistic regression.
Of 5896 Saudi medical students who participated in the study, the prevalence of SAD was almost 51%. While 8.21% and 4.21% had reported severe and very severe SAD, respectively. Older age students were at lower risk of developing SAD (OR = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.89 - 0.96). In contrast, females (OR = 1.13, 95% CI = 1.01 - 1.26), students enrolled in private colleges and colleges implementing non-problem-based learning (OR = 1.29, 95% CI = 1.09 - 1.52 and OR = 1.29. 95% CI = 1.15 - 1.46 respectively) were at higher risk. A significant elevated risk of SAD was found among students who had previously failed, and had a low GPA.
SAD is prevalent among the sampled population, and different associated factors were identified. Current results could raise the awareness of faculty members and healthcare providers towards early detection and management of these cases.
社交焦虑障碍（SAD）在全球范围内很常见。然而，沙特阿拉伯的数据却不足。本研究旨在确定沙特医学生中 SAD 的患病率及其与社会人口统计学因素和学业成绩的关系。
主要结果是 SAD 的存在/不存在，次要结果是其严重程度。这些都是通过社交恐惧症量表来评估的。相关因素包括社会人口统计学变量以及学生的教育特征。描述性统计数据以计数和百分比报告，通过双变量和多变量逻辑回归计算未调整和调整后的优势比（OR）及其 95%置信区间（CI）。
在参加研究的 5896 名沙特医学生中，SAD 的患病率接近 51%。分别有 8.21%和 4.21%的学生报告有严重和非常严重的 SAD。年龄较大的学生患 SAD 的风险较低（OR=0.92，95%CI=0.89-0.96）。相比之下，女性（OR=1.13，95%CI=1.01-1.26）、就读于私立学院和采用非基于问题的学习的学院的学生（OR=1.29，95%CI=1.09-1.52 和 OR=1.29，95%CI=1.15-1.46）的风险较高。先前不及格且 GPA 较低的学生患 SAD 的风险显著增加。
在所抽样的人群中，SAD 很常见，并且确定了不同的相关因素。目前的结果可以提高教师和医疗保健提供者对这些病例的早期发现和管理的意识。
