Resilience among the Undergraduate Students in a Medical College in Kolkata: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Medical education is competitive, causing academic, clinical, and psychosocial stress, which contributes to rising depression and suicide rates among students. Resilience, the ability to cope with setbacks, serves as a stable protective factor against stress and burnout. Objectives: To estimate resilience among Undergraduate students of a Medical College in Kolkata and to determine the association of resilience with selected sociodemographic and academic variables. Methods: A facility-based observational study, cross-sectional in design, was conducted among 160 undergraduate students selected by stratified random sampling in a medical college of Kolkata. Sample size was calculated considering p=0.5, a precision of 7 %, design effect of 0.8 and considering 5% nonresponder rate. A predesigned, pre-validated structured questionnaire was used, comprising socio-demographic variables, the WHO 5 wellbeing score, and the Brief Resilience Scale. Association was calculated by the Chi-square test. Those having a significant association with them were taken for binary logistic regression. The value of p less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Among 160 study participants, 33% had a low level of resilience. In multivariable logistic regression analysis, higher age [AOR 2.22(1.03-4.76)], having no problems in the family [AOR 2.44(1.07-5.56)], and having a good WHO five wellbeing score [AOR 2.7(1.23-5.88)], have higher odds of having adequate resilience. Conclusion: About one-third of the study participants (33%) had low resilience. Male sex, higher age, belonging to joint family, having no problem in the family, absence of any comorbidity and having good WHO 5 wellbeing score had higher odds of developing adequate resilience.