Turkmen Suha, Kahal Salma, Majed Kamal, Ahmed Ahmed, Qureshi Isma, Khan Zohaer, Khan Kamran, Al-Kurbi Maha, Karakulukcu Serdar
Department of Emergency Medicine, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.
Department of Emergency Medicine, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar *Email:
Qatar Med J. 2024 Nov 11;2024(4):66. doi: 10.5339/qmj.2024.66. eCollection 2024.
Wars are escalating globally with devastating impacts on all aspects of life. The conflict between Ukraine and Russia began on February 24, 2022. Approximately 80,000 students of 155 nationalities were studying in Ukraine when the war started, disrupting their education and forcing many to leave the country. We aimed to determine the physical, emotional, and moral effects of the Ukrainian war on foreign medical students, as well as the secondary impacts of the war on the students due to the ongoing conflict.
The participants were non-Ukrainian medical students aged 18 years and over, studying at a medical school in Ukraine before the war started. A survey including the depression anxiety stress scales-21 (DASS-21) scale variables, a validated and reliable measure of depression, anxiety, and stress dimensions, and other questions on participants' demographics, education, and current socio-economic status was sent to all eligible students via their registered university emails and distributed using an online link.
A total of 99 students were included in the study. 52 (52.5%) of the students were female and 49 (49.5%) were between the ages of 23 and 24 years old. Participants reported high levels of depression (86.9%) and anxiety (82.8%), with significant percentages experiencing extreme levels: 40.4% for depression and 55.6% for anxiety. Additionally, 74.7% reported feeling stressed, with 18.2% indicating extreme stress. Reasons for leaving Ukraine included safety concerns (67.7%), seeking a more secure educational environment (63.6%), the impact of the ongoing war and conflict on their future (56.6%), and the loss of educational opportunities (28.3%).
It is not easy to predict how the war in Ukraine will affect the education of international students in the near future. This uncertainty situation may explain students' depression, anxiety, and stress. As a result, it is necessary to design effective strategies to maintain the training of health professionals during wartime. Research should be conducted on how to rebuild health education systems after the wartime crises stabilize, both for students who are citizens of the country exposed to war and for foreign students who went to that country to receive education, and solutions for this should be put forward.
全球范围内战争不断升级，对生活的各个方面都产生了毁灭性影响。俄乌冲突于2022年2月24日爆发。战争爆发时，约有来自155个国家的80000名学生在乌克兰学习，这扰乱了他们的教育，迫使许多人离开该国。我们旨在确定乌克兰战争对外国医学生的身体、情感和道德影响，以及由于持续冲突战争对学生产生的次生影响。
参与者为18岁及以上的非乌克兰医学生，他们在战争爆发前在乌克兰的一所医学院学习。通过学生注册的大学邮箱向所有符合条件的学生发送了一份调查问卷，其中包括抑郁焦虑压力量表-21（DASS-21）量表变量，这是一种经过验证且可靠的抑郁、焦虑和压力维度测量工具，以及其他关于参与者人口统计学、教育情况和当前社会经济状况的问题，并通过在线链接进行分发。
共有99名学生参与了该研究。其中52名（52.5%）学生为女性，49名（49.5%）学生年龄在23至24岁之间。参与者报告了高水平的抑郁（86.9%）和焦虑（82.8%），相当比例的人处于极端水平：抑郁为40.4%，焦虑为55.6%。此外，74.7%的人报告感到有压力，18.2%表示处于极端压力状态。离开乌克兰的原因包括安全担忧（67.7%）、寻求更安全的教育环境（63.6%）、持续战争和冲突对其未来的影响（56.6%）以及教育机会的丧失（28.3%）。
很难预测乌克兰战争在不久的将来将如何影响国际学生的教育。这种不确定的情况可能解释了学生们的抑郁、焦虑和压力。因此，有必要设计有效的策略，以在战时维持卫生专业人员的培训。应该针对战时危机稳定后如何重建健康教育系统进行研究，这既适用于遭受战争国家的本国学生，也适用于前往该国接受教育的外国学生，并应为此提出解决方案。
