The Prevalence of Anxiety Among students of Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences in 2007

Introduction: Anxiety is one of the most common mental disorders of community that affects the quality of life. Hospitals are associated with human’s life and death and their environment is very stressful. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of anxiety among medical students of Hormozgan University of medical sciences. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in Hormozgan University of Medical Science in 2006-2007. In this study, 919 students were randomly selected. The S7A7-x Spilberger questionnaire was used to collect data. The first part of this questionnaire contained questions regarding age, gender, educational field, smoking, interest the educational field, and having free time in the weekly program. The second part evaluated the status of state anxiety. Data was entered into the SPSS 18 software and descriptive statistics, chi square and t test were used for analysis. Results: Among 919 students, 596 (64.9%) were female and 323(35.1 %) were male. The average age of the participants was 21.7 ± 1.8. The level of anxiety was significantly related to gender, the students' interest in their academic field, smoking and amount of free time (P < 0.05). Also, the level of anxiety was higher among medical students. Conclusion: According to the results, it is recommended to educate coping skills to the students and conduct programs that prevent anxiety disorders in order to increase quality of life of students of all medical fields. Also, studies need to be carried out to identify the risk factors of anxiety in students.