Association of stress with BMI among medical students

Introduction: Medical education is considered as one of the most demanding courses. It brings with it a multitude of stressors which affects overall wellbeing of medical students.. Stress and BMI show association with each other. Stress may play a major role in the development of obesity, which is the root cause of many diseases. Objective: To determine the prevalence of stress among medical students and to observe its association with BMI among students of a private medical college. Materials & methods: A cross-sectional study on 204 subjects was conducted at Aziz Fatimah Medical and Dental College (AFMDC), Faisalabad. The study population consisted of first year to final year MBBS students. Stress was assessed by Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10). BMI was calculated by self-reported measures of weight and height. Data were analyzed by SPSS 23 for descriptive and comparative statistics, keeping p≤0.05 as significant. Results: The prevalence of stress was found to be as follows: low in 27(13.2%), moderate in 142(69.6%) and severe stress in 35(17.2%) medical students. The mean stress score was 20.29 indicating moderate stress. The BMI among different categories was classified as underweight in 28(13.7%), normal in 121(59.3%), overweight in 47(23%) and obese in 8(3.9%) students. A statistically significant association was found between Stress and BMI (p-value = 0.018). Pearson’s correlation coefficient showed a statistically significant negative correlation between Stress and BMI (p-value = 0.008). Conclusion: Significant association and statistically negative correlation between Stress and BMI was observed. The findings indicate that stress level increases as the BMI decreases.