Procrastination and Test Anxiety among Medical Students in Medical Colleges in Nepal: A Cross-Sectional Study

Procrastination among student’s is a prevalent behavior that negatively influences their performance and well-being. This research assessed with the prevalence of medical students struggle with their behavioral trait of procrastinating and test anxiety in Nepalese students.

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 214 medical students (MBBS) of Chitwan Medical College through pretested semi-structured questionnaire through self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was self-developed with added The Academic Procrastination Scale and The Westside Test Anxiety Scale aiming assess the psychological and behavioral trait of medical students. The collected data were entered and analyzed using SPSS IBM v.20. Data were analyzed using chi-square test, t-test, ANOVA, logistic regression and correlation where association were established where p value was <0.05. All ethical consideration were followed and IRC was approved with registration: NEHCO/IRC/080/051, MMIHS .

Prevalence of Test Anxiety (TA) was found to be 39.3% among studied population. TA among medical students has strong association with maternal and paternal education level with significance. In this study, respondents who had maternal and paternal education level secondary/more (95% CI 0.526-2.056, p-value=0.036 and 95% CI 0.463-2.476, p-value=0.048) respectively are more likely to have TA. The factors such as residence, alcohol use and smoking and/or tobacco products/chewing were associated with the academic procrastination. The mean academic procrastination was significantly higher to those living close to campus on their own/with flat mates (p = 0.001), with individuals who consume alcohol displaying higher mean scores than those who do not (p = 0.008), individuals who use smoking and/or tobacco products/chewing have higher mean scores compared to non-users (p = 0.033).

The strong correlation between the academic procrastination and test anxiety with the positive correlation value (r=0.593) which illustrate that students with test anxiety is greatly affected by the academic procrastination. Regular assessments and counseling services offered by colleges can effectively manage among students.