Incidence of Depression, Anxiety and Stress among Final-Year Medical Students versus Internship Graduates of the Faculty of Medicine, Sana'a University 2023

ABSTRACT Background: Depression, anxiety, and stress among medical students are significant health issues because of their impact on the challenging journey in medicine. Objective: To assess the degree of relief in depression, anxiety, and stress attributed to the graduation of final-year medical students from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, Sana'a University, Yemen, in 2023. Methodology: A cohort design was employed. There were 408 volunteers, with a response rate of 99.8%. They were contacted electronically through faculty registries. There were 212 final-year respondents and 197 interns. The data were collected via questionnaires that included sociodemographic characteristics and a validated self-administered DASS-21 questionnaire to assess depression, anxiety and stress. The collected data were analysed via SPSS version 26. Ethical Clearance Certificate, according to Helsinki Declaration, was obtained from the Faculty of Medicine, Sana'a University. Results: Final-year medical students had incidence rates of 74.1% depression, 66% anxiety and 62.7% stress. However, 63.96% of internship graduates were depressed, 56.9% were anxious, and 45% were stressed. Relief was significantly associated with depression (p=0.032) and stress (p<0.0001), whereas anxiety was not significantly associated (p=0.067). Conclusion: The rates of depression, anxiety and stress were high in both cohorts. The relief attributed to graduation was significant for depression and stress.