Perceived Stress and Coping Profile of Undergraduate Medical Students: A Cross Sectional Study

Background: In the current competitive world, every student’s life is very stressful due to various factors like studies, exams, batch mates, lecturers or pressure by parents. Stress is sometimes called as the wear and tear experienced by everyone’s body because we need to adjust to the ever changing environment. Objective: Aim was to assess the perceived stress and coping profile among undergraduate medical students in Bagalkot. A total of 100 undergraduate students from S. N. Medical College, Bagalkot were included based on systematic random sampling test methods. Each enrolled student was given two self-rating questionnaires-Perceived Stress Scale and Brief Cope Inventory. Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact were used for analysis. Result: Majority of study participants had belonged to very high health concern level followed by high health concern level. Most of the participants used self-distraction and active coping strategy. Perceived stress was not associated with sex, religion, place of domicile or type of the family. Conclusion: The effect of stress depends on the way it is perceived. The coping strategies are usually influenced by socioeconomic and cultural characteristics. So they vary from individuals to individuals. Students who are stressed must receive counseling on how to manage and cope up with the stress. We need to enforce early interventions strategies to improve the quality of life of each student by reducing the stress.