Anxiety of mexican medical school students before starting as pre-registration house officers

Abstract

Introduction: Pre-registration medical graduates demonstrate their skills in a hospital as rotation house-officers, which can cause anxiety. The aim of this study is to quantify anxiety (state and trait) in students before starting their pre-registration posts in a public medical school in Mexico, and also to determine if their mean examination grades (GPA) are related to anxiety.

Method: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted using the IDARE questionnaire, which assesses Trait anxiety (STAI R) and state (STAI E). It was completed, before starting the pre-registration house officer rotation in 2014, by students of the Faculty of Medicine, UNAM, 2009 course. Statistical analysis was performed using Student t test for independent samples, and Pearson correlation index.

Results: Out of a total number of 1,023 students in 2014, the sampled population was 479 (46.82%), of whom 332 (32.45%) were women and 147 (14.36%) were men. There were 105 (21.82%) students with trait anxiety trait, with a GPA of 84.1, 132 (27.55%) with anxiety state, with a GPA of 84.0. There were 374 (78.07%) with no anxiety trait, and 347 (72.44%) with no state anxiety. On comparing state anxiety, the Student t-test p=.3 (95% CI -1474 to 0.494); the Pearson correlation index was -0.009, p=.043. On comparing anxiety state, the Student t-test p=.236 reported (95% CI -1.46 to 0.360); the Pearson correlation index was -0.08, with a p=.047. As for the GPA, there was no difference between the different levels of state and trait anxiety. 

Conclusions: The trait anxiety level and state is often greater than that reported in the general population. There was no correlation between the presence of anxiety and mean examination grades (GPA).