Corona: Is Still Not Yet Over! Psychological Effects on Undergraduate Medical Students at The Entry-Level; A Gender-Based Comparative Study

Corona pandemic negatively affects undergraduate (UG)medical students with the increased prevalence levels of anxiety and stress and unaltered depression symptoms. Aims & objectives identify the Corona stress levels of UG students within the first two months of reporting to the campus and find any association of stress levels based on Gender. We conducted this cross-sectional study on all the 150 first-year Competency-based medical education (CBME)medical students batch of Sri Devaraj Urs Medical College, rural district of Kolar. We researched within their first two months of reporting to the campus when the institute’s in-person teaching commenced. We excluded the students with a history of undergoing treatment with psychotropics or psychotherapy/counseling for any underlying stress. After obtaining approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee and their written informed consent, all the students filled in their basic socio-demographic and background details. Later, the main instrument for the study’s objective, the Corona stress scale with slight modifications to suit our rural lower socio-economic community, was filled by all the students. Females had statistically more stress than males in the domains of danger subscale (p=0.005), social-economic consequences subscale(p=0.001), contamination subscale (p-0.008), compulsive checking subscale(p-0.039), and the overall global corona stress scale(p=0.001). There were no differences in stress scores based on the domicile and zonal status of the students, along with their current relationship status. Medical students suffer from various forms of anxiety disorders during this pandemic situation. It is pertinent to evaluate and address these issues before their early entry into the clinical postings as per their CBME (Competency-based medical education) curriculum.