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APP| Published By AEIRC| https://doi.org/10.29052/2412-3188.v6.i1.2019.35-40 

ISSN 2412 - 3188 

Original Article                                                                                  

Comparison of anxiety levels among medical & 
engineering students  
Sarfaraz Ahmed1, Kiran Abdullah2 & Abdul Ghani3 
1Baqai Medical University (BMU) 
2Liaquat National Medical College (LNMC) 
3Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology (SSUET) 

 

Abstract 
Background: There has been a rising concern regarding the psychophysiological 
distress associated with medical training. As the medical students during their 
transformational period undergo several changes in relation to the academic and 
training experiences. The family expectations, competition, uncertainties, 
admission and academic protocol are few of the stressors behind the anxiety and 
stress among medical students. The objective of this study was to compare anxiety 
levels among medical & engineering students. 
Methodology: A cross sectional study was carried out among students of different 
medical & engineering universities of Karachi from August 2018 to February 2019. 
A total of 400 students were enrolled in the study. Data was collected using a self-
administered questionnaire consisting of socio demographic characteristics, 
details regarding the anxiety episodes including intensity, causes, physical 
symptoms, experiences during anxiety and the coping strategies for such episodes 
was also inquired. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS version 20.  
Results: Findings showed that among out of 250 medical students, 160(64%) were 
suffering from moderate to severe anxiety. On the other hand, 54 (36%) out of 150 
engineering students reported moderate to severe level of anxiety. Social 
interactions (45%) and stress at work or university (35%) were the prime cause of 
anxiety. Moreover, restlessness, difficulty concentrating and sleeping were the 
common physical effects observed due to anxiety. 
Conclusion: High prevalence of anxiety was observed among medical students 
when compared to engineering students. Therefore, to improve psychological 
wellbeing and work performances interventional strategies promoting mental 
health and wellbeing need to be designed and implemented. 

 

Keywords 
Anxiety, Prevalence, Medical students, Engineering students. 

Citation: Ahmed S, Abdullah K, Ghani 
A. Comparison of Anxiety levels 
among Medical & Engineering 
Students. APP. 2019; 6(1):35-40 
 
Corresponding Author Email: 
Sarfaraz.amhad6@gmail.com 
 
DOI: 10.29052/2412-3188.v6.i1.2019.35-40 

 
Received 30/03/2019 
 
Accepted 21/08/2019 
 
Published 12/10/2019 
 
Copyright © The Author(s). 2019 This  
is an open access article distributed 
under the terms of the Creative 
Commons Attribution 4.0 International 
License, which permits unrestricted 
use, distribution, and reproduction in 
any medium, provided the original 
author and source are credited.  
 

 

Funding: The author(s) received no 
specific funding for this work. 

Conflicts of Interests: The author(s) 
declare that there is no conflict of 
interest in the preparation of this 
manuscript. 
 

https://doi.org/10.29052/2412-3188.v6.i1.2019.
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ISSN 2412 - 3188 

APP| Published By AEIRC| Volume 6 Issue 1  

 

Introduction  
Due to the high academic and professional 
demand the medical schools are greatly 
focusing on the extensive trainings together 
with the academic courses and examinations 
with the aim to produce skilled physicians 
with advance medical knowledge1. Which in 
turn effects the students and result in 
negative outcomes compromising both 
physical and mental health. Based on the 
available literature, students usually face 
difficulties due to the torturous admission 
process, slow development of skills, trouble 
learning and inappropriate implementation 
while economic constraints and family 
expectations comes in as the add on stressors 
during this training2-4.  
 
Moreover, everyday exposure to the medical 
environment having patients with several 
health conditions, terminal illnesses and 
death greatly affects the psychological 
wellbeing of the student during the training 
period5,6. The increasing stress develops 
anxiety among the students which is as 
devastating as depression7 but due to lack of 
awareness it remains unattended8. Anxiety 
sufferers undergo fear, nausea, dizziness, 
headache, fatigue, abdominal pain and 
palpitations etc9. Besides this, it also impairs 
the working memory and compromises the 
performance due to distorted attention and 
concentration10,11.  
 
Based on the findings of a systematic review, 
the prevalence of anxiety among medical 
students ranges in between 7.7% and 65.5%12. 
It is found that anxiety is significantly 
associated with the dropout rate, affecting 
the personal as well as professional life of the 
student1. Ultimately, affecting the quality of 
patient care as it decreases the working 
efficacy13. With reduced self-esteem, these 
students experience decline in the quality of 
life and care they provide during training 
and practice14,15. Our aim was to compare the 
prevalence of anxiety among medical and 
engineering students.  
 
 

Methodology 
A cross sectional study was carried out 
during August 2018 to February 2019 on 
medical and engineering students of various 
universities of Karachi including Baqai 
Medical University (BMU), Liaquat National 
Medical College (LNMC), Sir Syed 
University of Engineering & Technology 
(SSUET) and Dawood University of 
Engineering & Technology (DUET). A total of 
400 students were enrolled in the study after 
attaining written informed consents. A self-
administered questionnaire inquiring socio 
demographic details and characteristics of 
anxiety episodes like intensity of the episode, 
causes, physical symptoms and coping 
strategies was used by the students.  
 
The collected data was analyzed using SPSS 
Version 20, where quantitative variables such 
as age was summarized using mean and 
standard deviation while qualitative 
variables such as gender, intensity, 
symptoms and strategies used to cope with 
anxiety episodes were summarized as 
frequency and percentages. 
 

Result 
Out of the 400 enrolled students, there were 
150 engineering students (E) and 250 medical 
students (M) with a mean age of 20±1.5 years. 
Around 51.25% of these students were males 
while 48.75% were females.   
 
Based on the findings 159(63.6%) medical 
students had anxiety out of which 49% were 
suffering from moderate anxiety and 15% 
were in severe anxiety. On the other hand, 
54(36%) engineering students had anxiety, of 
them 28% and 8% suffered moderate and 
severe episodes. Stress at Work/University, 
social interaction, isolation and family 
expectations were few of the prominent 
factors leading to anxiety among both 
medical and engineering students. 
 
 
 
 
 



 

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Table 1: Demographic characteristics of study participants 

 

Variables  Sub-categories  (n=400) 

Age (Years)  20±1.5 

Study Groups 
Medical Students (M) 250(62.5) 

Engineering Students (E) 150(37.5) 

Gender 

 

Male 205(51.25) 

Female 195(48.75) 
*90(M) + 115 (E) =205 males; 160 (M) + 35 (E) = 195 females  

*Values are given as n (%) and Mean ± SD 

 

Among the symptoms of anxiety, trouble concentrating (35%), difficulty falling asleep (25%) and 
restlessness (20%) were apparent. Crying was preferred as the best coping strategy by 33% of the 
medical students while 17% preferred sleeping, comparatively among engineering students 
sleeping (30%) was mostly preferred to cope with anxiety.       
 

Table 2: Characteristics of anxiety among medical and engineering students 

 

 

Characteristics of Anxiety   

Medical  

Students (n=250) 

Engineering 

Students (n=150) 

Intensity 
Moderate  122(49) 42(28) 

Severe  37(15) 12(8) 

Causes  

Social Interaction 62(25) 30(20) 

Family Expectations 25(10) 7(05) 

Stress at Work/University 100(40) 75(50) 

Isolation 57(23) 22(15) 

Body Image 5(02) 15(10) 

Symptoms                  

Restlessness 50(20) 45(30) 

Trouble concentrating 87(35) 52(35) 

Uncomfortable 30(12) 15(10) 

Difficulty falling asleep 62(25) 22(15) 

Decreased Muscle tension  20(08) 15(10) 

Coping 

strategies                            

Crying 82(33) 30(20) 

Sleeping 42(17) 45(30) 

Offer Prayers 15(06) 22(15) 

Speaking to Someone 50(20) 27(18) 

Moving to Peaceful Place 25(10) 18(12) 

Wait to Out it 35(14) 7(05) 
*Values are given as n (%). 

 

Significant difference was observed in the anxiety levels among the two genders. The mean anxiety 

ratio was higher among female students (53.43%) as compared to male students (46.57%). 

 

Table 3: Comparison of male and female students suffering from anxiety 

 

Gender  
Medical Students 

(n=250) 

Engineering Students 

(n=150) 
Mean Ratio 

Male  72(45) 26(48.14) 46.57% 



 

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APP| Published By AEIRC| Volume 6 Issue 1  

 

Female  88(55) 28(51.85) 53.43% 
*M=Medical; E=Engineering 

*Values are given as n (%)  

Discussion 
Overall study demonstrated that higher level 

of anxiety was observed in medical students 

as compared to the engineering students of 

both genders (Table 2). Moreover, gender 

wise differences were also common in both 

groups i.e. female students either medical or 

engineering experienced higher level of 

anxiety (53.43%) as compared to male 

students (46.57%) (Table 3). This substantiate 

presence of gender differences in the anxiety 

has also been reported by many other 

researchers16,17. It is suggested that the 

possible reason for this could be increased 

emotional vulnerability of females as 

compared to males18.  The results were 

comparable to a similar study conducted in 

India where perceived stress and associated 

anxiety were more common among medical 

students (72%) as compared to engineering 

students (56.7%)19. However, students in 

medical school with highly competitive 

challenges show greater susceptibility to 

develop anxiety as compared to the 

counterparts19.  

There have been an increasing number of 

studies conducted to evaluate the prevalence 

of anxiety among medical students, the 

prevalence of anxiety among Thai students 

was reported to be 61.4%20. In support, a 

cross-sectional study conducted in Jeddah 

pointed out that the prevalence of borderline 

anxiety was 33.3% and morbid anxiety was 

34.9%21. According to research conducted at 

the Faculty of Medicine, Riyadh, female 

students (75.7%) who experienced 

psychological stress was more as compared 

to male students (57%)22. The overall results 

of our study were consistent with the above-

mentioned details.  

Among the major causes of anxiety were 

social interactions and stress at work or 

university (Table 2).  High parental pressure 

and future concerns are the key stressors 

contributing to the higher anxiety levels 

among medical students as concluded by a 

similar study23. Restlessness, sleeping 

difficulties and concentrating inabilities are 

few of the physical effects caused by anxiety 

(Table 2). In support, a study presenting more 

descriptive results indicated restlessness, loss 

of appetite, difficulty in concentrating, 

constant fatigue, increase muscle ache, 

impatience and clouded judgment as the 

chief symptoms associated with anxiety23. 

With the increasing complexities in the 

academic system, it may not be possible to 

completely eliminate anxiety from the 

medical educational structure. But the early 

detection and management are important in 

order to control this stressor. To support the 

academic transitions mental health and 

wellness promotion programs are required as 

internationally such programs have yield 

positive outcomes among medical 

students24,25.  

There were a few limitations in the current 

study, one of which is self-reporting by the 

students enrolled that might be reason for 

reporting bias and response inaccuracy. 

Conclusion  
It is concluded that medical students 

experience higher level of anxiety as 

compared to engineering students, which can 

be prevented by the help of different 

psychological therapies and recommended 

physical activities. Students should indulge 

in various extracurricular activities in order 

to avoid academic distress. 

Acknowledgement  
We are all grateful to students of medical and 

engineering universities who co-operated in 

our studies. 



 

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