Assessment of stress, resilience, and coping style among medical students and effectiveness of intervention programs on stress level in South India: A non-randomized control trial

Abstract

Background: Uncontrolled stress can be made at ease through resilient emotions and higher coping skills. The study aimed at assessing the level of stress, resilience, and coping among medical students and to study the effect of stress intervention programs on the stress level. Materials and Methods: This was a nonrandomized control trial among 526 medical students which used medical student stress questionnaire, and perceive stress scale (PSS), resilience assessment using a 25-item resilience scale, and coping using a modified Pareekh scale. After the completion of the preintervention assessment, the students were assigned nonrandomly into two groups (intervention group n = 272 vs. nonintervention group n = 254), and the stress intervention programs were done for one group without any programs for the other group. Results: The study concluded that 246 (46.8%), 274 (52.1%), and 277 (52.7%) showed higher stress higher resilience and lower coping, respectively. The study showed that, with stress intervention programs, stress levels by PSS got significantly reduced by 2.64 scores. Conclusions: The study showed the presence of higher stress and resilience and lower coping among medical students. The inclusion of programs to reduce the stress among students showed a positive result and can be replicated.