@article{Aisha_2020, title={PERCEPTION OF “STRESS” AND “STRESSORS”AMONG FIRST YEAR MEDICAL STUDENTS AND EFFECT OF INTERVENTION ON THEIR STRESS PERCEPTION}, volume={70}, url={https://pafmj.org/PAFMJ/article/view/4664}, abstractNote={<p><strong>Objective:</strong> To explore perception of stress & stressors among first year medical students, with or without intervention.</p> <p><strong>Study Design:</strong> Quasi-experimental study.</p> <p><strong>Place and Duration of Study:</strong> Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University (SMBBMU), Larkana and duration of the study was of eight months starting from Oct 2017.</p> <p><strong>Methodology:</strong> All the first year medical students who were willing to participate and present in class and filled the post it notes and perceived stress scale-questionnaire completely were included in this study. These 240 students were randomly divided to two equal groups of 120 students in each; group I received intervention and thus labeled as intervention group, whereas group 2 included remaining half of students which did not receive any intervention (non-intervention group). The intervention was in form of a 2 days’ workshop on stress management. The contents of workshop were carefully selected in concordance with the identified stressors from response of students on the post-it-notes.</p> <p><strong>Results:</strong> About 45% (109) were boys and 55% (131) were girls. Most common stressors identified were, time management (24.1%), lack of guidance from teacher regarding test/exam preparation (20.8%), failure to memorize and retain learned facts (19.1%), lack of peer support (12.5%), frequent test/exams (10.8%) long courses (8.3%) and conflict with teachers/friends (4.1%). Mean baseline perceived stress scale score in intervention group was 19.72 ± 6.04 where as in non-intervention group it was 19.27 ± 0.583. The difference of PSS scores before (baseline) and after intervention (delayed) was statistically significant (p-value <0.001) between two groups.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> We may conclude from our study findings that the moderate degree of stress is not uncommon among first year medical students and the stress-management intervention improves perception of stress by addressing the common stressors as identified by them.</p>}, number={3}, journal={Pakistan Armed Forces Medical Journal}, author={Aisha, Dr}, year={2020}, month={Jun.}, pages={801–06} }