Variation of stress levels, burnout, and resilience throughout the academic year in first-year medical students

Abstract

Medical student wellness is of great concern in the health care field. A growing number of studies point to increases in suicide, depression, anxiety, mood disorders, and burnout related to physician lifestyles. Mental health issues commencing in medical school have been suggested to have a significant impact on future physician lifestyle and burnout. Tracking the mental health of medical students at the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences (UTCOMLS) with standardized indices will help elucidate triggers of poor mental health. Anonymous surveys were developed and distributed to preclinical medical students at five strategic time points throughout the 2018 2019 academic year. Surveys collected basic demographic information as well as inventories measuring perceived stress, burnout, resilience, and mindfulness. 172 M1s (83 males and 89 females) were included in the study and average response rate for the first 4 (out of 5) surveys averaged 74.8%. M1 males and females had on average increased personal burnout over time with females consistently scoring higher. Both males and females had an increase in stress from August to each subsequent month (p<0.05). Females reported a higher level of perceived stress than males in the beginning and middle of the academic year (p<0.05). Both males and females report a gradual decrease in resiliency throughout the academic year. These surveys demonstrated over half of males and females in medical school reported higher perceived stress scores than their gender-matched peers in the general United States population. Our study strengthens documented trends in resiliency, perceived stress, and burnout amongst medical students. More study in designing targeted approaches to ameliorate these findings in the medical student population is warranted.