Abstract:
Objective: The purpose of this study was to correlate the hypochondriacal concerns related to diseases with level of anxiety
and depression symptoms among medical and engineering undergraduates.
Study design and Setting: Cross sectional study was conducted among undergraduates of final year students of BUMDC
(Bahria University Medical & Dental College) and engineering students from NUST- PNEC (NUST – Pakistan Navy
Engineering College).
Methodology: In this study; (99) final year medical students and (92) engineering students were recruited. In order to
maintain consistency of age, students aging between 21–26 years were selected. Selected students were handed to fill the
required ‘Self-administered Questionnaire’ comprising of demographic details, short health anxiety inventory, medical
history and DASS (depression, anxiety and stress scale) which were completed on-site. Data was entered in SPSS version
21 and analyzed using Fisher’s exact test. P value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Result: Out of 191 students in total from both the groups n=86 (45%) were females and n=105(55%) were males. There
were 99 participants from MBBS and 92 from engineering. The participants’ ages ranged from 21-26 years with a mean=
23.95 (SD±2.29), both the cohorts belonged to approximately same age group. While assessing depression the responses
were not very different for both the groups. When responses of depression scale were related to visits to psychiatrists or
psychologist or psychotherapist a strong relationship was observed (p=0.012) in medical students cohort.
Conclusion: The results of the study reflected comparable psychosocial strain at an elevated level among both student
groups.