Depression, Anxiety and Stress among Medical and Non Medical Female Students of Pakistan

Objective: To find out the level of depression, anxiety and stress on the basis of education among female medical and non medical students. Study Design: Cross sectional descriptive study. Study place and duration: Study was conducted at Nishtar medical college, Multan and Bahaudin Zakarya University Multan from October 2020 to October 2021. Methodology: The study was conducted on 100 medical students and 100 non medical students from two institutions of Multan. Depression and Anxiety stress scale (DASS) was used for evaluation of outcomes. SPSS version 23 was used for data analysis. T-test was applied to assess score differences of depression, anxiety and stress between medical and non medical students. Quantitative variables were presented as mean and standard deviation, whereas qualitative variables were presented as frequency and percentages. Probability value≤0.05 was considered as significant. Results: Mean age of participants was 24.2±1.80 years and 14.5% were living away from their families. Mean score for depression in medical students were: 13.96±7.289 and for depression in non medical students were: 16.02±6.374, for anxiety in medical students were: 17.15±6.936 for anxiety in non medical students were: 14.33±5.829, for stress in medical students were: 14.61±5.148 and for stress in non medical students were:14.73±6.078. Correlation of stress with depression was significant: r =.045, p<0.05, whereas correlation of stress with anxiety was non-significant r=.131, p˃0.05. Conclusion: Female medical students had low level of depression but high level of anxiety and stress as compared to non medical students. Presence of stress was correlated with presence of depression among medical and non medical students. Keywords: Depression, Anxiety, stress, Medical students, Non medical students, Pakistan