Tomorrow’s physicians in distress: prevalence, socioeconomic gradients, and modifiable determinants of mental health problems among 1,560 medical students in Southern Brazil — a multicentre cross-sectional study
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Background
Medical students carry a disproportionate burden of mental health problems, but large multicentre studies from low- and middle-income countries remain scarce, and most evidence relies on single-institution samples and odds-ratio-based analyses that overstate associations for common outcomes. We provide a comprehensive epidemiological overview of mental health among medical students across an entire Brazilian state, quantifying the burden, its co-occurrence, and its socioeconomic and academic determinants.
Methods
Cross-sectional online survey of 1,560 medical students covering all 20 medical schools in operation in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (August–December 2023). Validated instruments assessed depressive and anxiety symptoms (PHQ-4), suicidal ideation (PHQ-9 item 9), non-suicidal self-injury, burnout (ESB-eu), quality of life (EUROHIS-QOL-8), spirituality (SSRS), substance use (ASSIST), prescription stimulant misuse, and mistreatment during training. Associations were estimated as adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR) using modified Poisson regression with robust variance, with linear trend tests, prespecified interactions, sensitivity analyses and E-values.
Results
Anxiety symptoms affected 64.5% (95% CI 62.1–66.9), depressive symptoms 45.5% (43.1–48.0), burnout 49.1% (46.7–51.6), recent suicidal ideation 20.6% (18.7–22.7), lifetime self-injury 13.1% (11.6–14.9) and stimulant misuse 7.9%; 57.4% screened positive for ≥2 outcomes. Quality of life declined monotonically with cumulative burden. Low family income showed inverse gradients across five outcomes (e.g., depression: PR 0.93 per income level, p = 0.002). Four factors were independently associated with nearly all outcomes: short sleep (<6 h; aPR up to 2.73), minority sexual orientation (aPR up to 2.02), family psychiatric history, and mistreatment during training (reported by 55.6%; aPR up to 1.49). Stimulant misuse tripled from the basic cycle to clerkship (aPR 2.30, 95% CI 1.36–3.88). There was no evidence of multiplicative interaction, indicating that the risk factors acted independently on the outcomes. Estimates were robust across sensitivity analyses.
Conclusions
One in two medical students in this state-wide sample screened positive for at least two mental health problems. Socioeconomic vulnerability, sleep deprivation, mistreatment and minority status operate as independent and largely modifiable determinants — actionable targets for medical schools and policymakers.
