Original Research Article
Year: 2019 | Month: January-March | Volume: 4 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 136-140
Mental Health Screening of Young Adults in a Medical College at Kozhikode District, Kerala
Mrs. Reshma V1, Dr. R Ratheesh1, Dr. Bindu Mohandas2, Mr. Durgesh Kumar K3, Mr. Sujesh PK4
1Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, KMCT Medical College, Calicut
2Associate Professor, 3Statistician, 4Medico-Social Worker,
Department of Community Medicine, KMCT Medical College, Calicut
Corresponding Author: Dr. R Ratheesh
ABSTRACT
Background: A large portion of the disease burden in young people is due to mental disorders. These problems affect their academic performances. Medical students during their training period undergoes through a stressful situation which can affect their academic performances and can end up with substance abuse. This study is an attempt to have an insight into the mental health problems of young adults – medical students.
Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in KMCT Medical College in 2017. The data was collected by self- administering predesigned and pretested structured questionnaire. Data collected was entered in Microsoft excel and analyzed using SPSS software (version 14.0).
Results: 105 students participated in the study, 70.47% were females and 29.53% were males. 53.8% of the study participants responded that they felt anxious, sad, angry/irritable, or tensed at various occasions in the recent past. 56.6% of the study participants said that their present symptoms were not out of proportion to the cause. 52.8% of the participants felt loss of interest sometimes in the recent past. 12.3% had felt it often. 3.8% of them often felt hopelessness in their life. 1.9% of the study participants had a thought of self harming. 48.5% of the participants responded that their symptoms affected their daily activities especially studying and other activities.4.7% said they are having suicidal thoughts.
Conclusion: 28% of the students were having symptoms of mental health problems which should be addressed without delay.
Key words: Mental health, screening, college students