Religious coping, religiosity, depressive and anxiety symptoms among Malaysian medical students / Benedict Francis
Medical students are vulnerable to depression and anxiety due to the nature of their academic life. Religious coping is often used as a coping mechanism in this population. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms among medical students as well as to determi...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Published: |
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/11550/4/benedict.pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/11550/ |
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| Summary: | Medical students are vulnerable to depression and anxiety due to the nature of their
academic life. Religious coping is often used as a coping mechanism in this population.
This study aimed to determine the prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms
among medical students as well as to determine the correlation between religious
coping, religiosity and socio-demographic factors with anxiety and depression. A cross
sectional design was used for this study and samples were collected via convenient
sampling. Religiosity and religious coping were measured using the Malay version of
the Duke Religious Index (DUREL-M) and the Malay version of the Brief Religious
Coping Scale (Brief RCOPE). Depression and anxiety were measured using the Malay
version Hospital and Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS-M). All scales used were
validated for the Malaysian population. A total of 622 patients participated in this study.
A majority of them were female, single and from the Muslim and Buddhist religion.
They scored moderately on the organized (mean: 3.51) and non-organized religious
(mean: 3.85) subscales of the DUREL, but had high intrinsic religiosity (mean: 12.18).
The prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms were 4.7 % and 17.4 %
respectively. Islam, negative religious coping and the presence of depressive symptoms
were significantly associated with anxiety symptoms. Only the presence of anxiety
symptoms was significantly associated with depressive symptoms. The prevalence of
depressive and anxiety symptoms among Malaysian students were lower than previous
local and international data. They had high intrinsic religiosity however negative
religious coping was associated with increased anxiety symptoms. Focus needs to be
directed towards reducing negative religious coping as it has adverse impact on the
mental health of Malaysian medical students |
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