Medical Students' Syndrome among Medical Students in the University of Sharjah, UAE

Saud Hilmi Abdullah; Ahmed Ehab Ahmed; Homam Galal Eldin Algebail; Ahmed Fatooh; Laila Nour Aldeen Ismail; Nada Khaled Radwan; Nour Bade Sakan; Hiba Jawdat Barqawi

doi:10.1055/s-0043-1768683

Medical Students' Syndrome among Medical Students in the University of Sharjah, UAE

Avicenna J Med. 2023 Jun 7;13(2):77-81. doi: 10.1055/s-0043-1768683. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Authors

Saud Hilmi Abdullah¹, Ahmed Ehab Ahmed¹, Homam Galal Eldin Algebail¹, Ahmed Fatooh¹, Laila Nour Aldeen Ismail¹, Nada Khaled Radwan¹, Nour Bade Sakan¹, Hiba Jawdat Barqawi²

Affiliations

¹ College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
² Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

Abstract

Background Medical students' syndrome (MSS) is a set of psychosomatic symptoms that affect students due to their medical background knowledge. Objectives This study aims to measure the prevalence and assess the knowledge about MSS among medical students at the University of Sharjah. It also aims to compare the attributed characteristics of MSS between different years of study. Methods A self-administered 24-item questionnaire was distributed to 503 students enrolled in the College of Medicine at University of Sharjah using nonprobability convenience sampling during June 2021. A total of 472 responses were completed and analyzed using descriptive studies and chi-squared test. Results The prevalence of MSS in this study was found to be 70.8% ( n = 334). Clinical year students were 1.75 times more likely to have felt they had a disease they studied about (95% confidence interval: 1.05-2.90, p = 0.03). Conclusion Medical students are more likely to experience MSS as their education progresses.

Keywords: health anxiety; knowledge; medical students' syndrome.

The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).