ABSTRACT
Objective:
The objective of the research is to verify the prevalence of psychological distress symptoms in medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods:
This is a cross-sectional and exploratory study that evaluated 656 medical students in Brazil. Data were collected between May and June 2020, through two self-administered instruments. The first was a questionnaire prepared by the authors themselves to assess the social, demographic and cultural profile of the population. For the screening of signs of psychological distress, the Self-Report Questionnaire was used, a questionnaire with 20 items divided into four domains. During data analysis, associations between categorical variables were tested using Pearson's chi-square test. The significance level adopted was 5%.
Results:
The results show that the prevalence of individuals with signs of psychological distress was 62.8%. Risk factors for mental illness during the COVID-19 pandemic are being female, being in the first two years of the course, reporting poor adaptation to Distance Learning, having difficulty concentrating, worrying about the delay of graduation, have a previous diagnosis of mental disorder, live with someone who needs to work outside the home, inability to maintain healthy habits and fear being infected by the virus.
Conclusion:
We conclude that the signs of psychological distress are high among medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, it was also possible to conclude that there are protective factors for mental illness.
KEYWORDS
Mental health; COVID-19; social isolation; psychological stress; medical students