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Chulalongkorn Medical Journal

Abstract

Objective : To determine the effect of awareness in reducing the stress,depression and overweight in medical students of SrinakharinwirotUniversity.Design : Cohort study.Materials and Methods : All 646 medical students of Srinakharinwirot University wererecruited, and the response rate was 86%. The study was donefrom September 2007 to March 2008. Each participant wasevaluated at twice; at the end of the first and second semester.The diagnostic screening test for depression was from theDepartment of Mental Health, Ministry of Public Health, Thailandand the stress test of Suanprung Hospital, Thailand. Afterevaluation at the end of the first semester, each student wastold to be aware their health problems and explained thepre-clinical students the knowledge, then repeated thequestionnaire. Categorical variables were analyzed usingMcNemar’s Chi-square test. A two-tailed p-value of less than0.05 was considered significant.Results : Depression was significant decreased from the first semester tothe second semester with odds ratio of 0.39 (95% CI = 0.18 –0.78). Male students were more overweight than female students.Male gender was correlated to decrease depression with oddsratio of 0.17 (95% CI = 0.02 – 0.75). Students in clinical classhad significant decreasing of depression and stress level fromthe first semester to the second semester with odds ratio of0.12 (95% CI = 0.01 – 0.50) and 0.38 (95% CI = 0.18 – 0.75),respectively. But the students in the pre-clinical class hadincreased stress level with odds ratio of 1.76 (95% CI = 1.00 –3.17).Conclusion : The awareness of medical students in clinical class coulddecrease depression and stress level. Male students’ awarenessaffected decreasing of depression more than female students.

Publisher

Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University

First Page

19

Last Page

28

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