Evaluation of psychic and somatic anxiety according to sex in second year students of psychosocial medicine in medical career

Abstract

Anxiety is a feeling of urgency or rush that modifies the experience of time, associated with both psychic symptoms (tension, fear, insomnia, etc.) and somatic symptoms (muscular, cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, autonomic, etc.). The objectives of the study were to determine the intensity of psychic and somatic anxiety and to investigate whether there are differences between them according to gender, in second-year Medicine students, in the Chair of Psychosocial Medicine, in the year 2019.

Regarding the material and methods, it was an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study, survey type in hetero-administered questionnaire modality. Sample selection: simple random sampling (n=80). Characteristics of the sample: medical students, students of the psychosocial medicine subject during the year 2019, aged between 19 and 20 years. Measurement instrument: Hamilton Anxiety Scale, with 14 items; each one scores: 0: Absent, 1: Mild, 2: Moderate, 3: Serious and 4: Very Serious/Disabling. 7 items evaluate psychic anxiety and 7 somatic anxiety. Score ranges were established for psychic and somatic anxiety: 0 to 14 and 15 to 28. Statistical analysis of the data: frequency tables (absolute and percentages) and Chi² test for differences in percentage distributions, establishing an α error at the of statistical significance of a p≤ 0.05%.

In the results, women were located, for psychic anxiety, according to range: 0-14: 35 (67.30%) and 15-28: 17 (32.69%), men: 0-14: 16 (57 .14%) and 15-28: 12 (42.85%). The percentage differences between the sexes were statistically significant for both intensity ranges. Regarding somatic anxiety, women presented: 0-14: 45 (86.53%), 15-28: 7 (13.46%), men: 0-14: 8 (28.57%), 15- 28: 20 (71.42%). Also here the percentage differences between the sexes, for both ranges, were statistically significant.

Regarding the conclusions, women predominated in the lower ranges (of psychic and somatic anxiety) and men in the higher ones, for which men present greater intensities of anxiety associated with a greater intensity of symptoms in both dimensions, psychic and somatic. compared to women.