Prevalence of research-related anxiety among students of Allied Health Sciences

Abstract

Background: Anxiety is one of the most common mental disorders. Although being detrimental, it is less researched upon than depression. While research is an essential component of medical education, it is also unfamiliar to undergraduate medical students. Therefore, research at the undergraduate level has been shown to cause anxiety among students.

Objective: To determine research-related anxiety among allied Health Sciences students.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in which a sample of 150 undergraduate students was selected on the basis of inclusion (no past history of mental illness, no traumatic incident in past 6 months and allied health sciences student from final year) and exclusion (traumatic incident in past 3 months, failure in recent major exam) criteria. The participants after signing the informed consent were recruited in the study through a non-probability convenient sampling technique. The data was collected using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7 scale). Data were analyzed through SPSS version 21.

Results: In this study, 150 undergraduate students participated in the study. Results showed that out of the 150 students, 90 (60%) had mild anxiety related to research, 32(21%) students had moderate-level anxiety, and 28(18%) students had severe anxiety.

Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the majority of students in their final year or semester experienced mild levels of research related-anxiety.