Prevalence and dynamics of depression and anxiety in local and foreign medical students for a 6-year training period

Abstract

The academic load in medical institutes is 2 times higher than in other universities, and the training itself is emotionally stressful, which affects the students' health. A continuous sample of 1045 medical students from 1 to 6 year of education was examined: 724 local (Russian) and 321 foreign students (India). Depression was more common among Russian (28.7%) than foreign students (17.8%). Anxiety was equally common - 34.3-34%. Among foreign students, the highest prevalence of depression and anxiety was in the 1st year while among Russians it was 5th and 6th years. Depression was more often combined with anxiety in foreign students (82.5%) than in Russians (60.1%). The average level of correlation between depression and anxiety was revealed for both groups. The clinical level of distress was more common among Russian than foreign students, which is associated with the peculiarities of their attitude to the educational process.