Community Medicine Abstracts - College of Medicine and Health ...

Project No. 219 (2005)Prevalence of Type A Behaviour and Stress Coping Strategies Among FMHSMedical Students in Al Ain, UAEStudent Authors: Raya Abdulla Mohd Salem Al-Mazrooei, Amna Obaid Ali Bedwawi,Noura Khamis Al-Ghaithi, Lamyaa Essa Khalifa Al AliFaculty Supervisors: Dr. F. Al Maskari, Dr. M. GrivnaAbstract:Objectives: To compare prevalence of type A behavior between the male and femalemedical students. To compare stress management between students in differentacademic years, of both genders and hostel and home residents. To define thefacilities required by the students to help them cope with stress.Methods: The study was done on a complete sample of all the students in the FMHS,Al-Ain city, UAE. The study was conducted between 17 and the 21 September 2005.Data were collected by a cross-sectional descriptive and analytic survey. Data analysiswas done using SPSS. Observed differences were tested for significance using Chisquare.Results: The response rate in the study was 88%. Over two thirds of the students(68%) have type A behavior. It is more prevalent among female students (73%)compare to male students (56%) (p=0.012). There is no statistical significantassociation between the prevalence of Type A behavior and: age, marital status,family income, sponsorship or BMI. The students use different strategies to cope withstress. Only 34% of the students agree they have a close relationship with theirmentor or advisor. Female students tend to share their frustrations with otherscompare to male students (p=0.006). Most of the students (64%) chose to share theirfrustrations with their friends and only (2.4%) share their frustrations with theirmentor. The younger the age of the students, the more tendency to use the followingstrategies: relaxation techniques (p= 0.033), the effective utilization of others inaccomplishing study assignment (p=0.011), and encouraging others to come withrecommended solutions for their problems (p=0.005). The higher the family income ofthe students, the more tendency to use relaxation techniques (0.023) and to sharetheir frustrations with others (p=0.026). Single students tend to take problems asopportunities for improvements more than married students (p=0.033). The studyassessed the stressors among the students and found that 82% of the students haveexams as a stressor while 51% consider death or illness in the family as a stressor.Other stressors include: stress in the family (33%), study (29%) and socialrelationships (24%). The students practice different activities to relieve stress, withmore than half of them watch TV and 47 % use internet. The students wish to havedifferent facilities and activities in the faculty and the hostel. High percentage of themasked for gymnastic-swimming pool and recreation center (54%), to go for trips(52%) and to have more open days (46%).Conclusion and Recommendation: The Prevalence of Type A Behavior among FMHSmedical students in FMHS is high (68.2%). Despite the fact that the students are usingdifferent strategies and activities to cope with their stress, the prevalence of thisbehavior type is high. This high rate requires attention to develop suitable strategies inorder to deal with its implications on the students. The students have many stressorsthat could contribute to evoke type A behavior with exams as major stress forstudents.The FMHS mentor system could have played an important role to guide the studentsand help them to deal with the stressors. However, according to the findings of thisstudy, the role is not that obvious. More effort should be put to improve this role. Thestudents asked for different facilities and activities to help them relieving their stress.The effective co-operation between the faculty and the hostel would contribute to thesuccessful implantation and improvements of these facilities and activities.