Identifying Mental Health Risk in Medical Students: A Quantitative Analysis of Wellness Assessments for First- and Third-Year Students at the University of Ottawa.

INTRODUCTION

An alarming prevalence of burnout among medical students has been reported in many countries, including Canada. To design resilience and wellness programs, it is important to explore individual risk factors. This article presents an example of a Wellness Assessment Program for medical students at the University of Ottawa. The goal was to identify risk factors for poorer mental health outcomes among medical students at the University of Ottawa.

METHODS

We conducted a quantitative study using a Wellness Assessment Questionnaire among four cohorts of first- and third-year students.

RESULTS

Risk factors that significantly impacted the mental health of 1 st and 3 rd year medical students at the University of Ottawa were physical health, sleep/fatigue, social support, education and career, stress, and drug and/or alcohol use. Students who were originally from Ottawa had more social support and less stress and drug and/or alcohol use (p < 0.001;p=0.009). Being in the Francophone cohort had a positive effect on physical health, but a negative effect on psychological/emotional health (p=0.039;p=0.004). There was a statistically significant difference (p=0.021) between the psychological/emotional health of 1st-year students (M=0.7895) and 3rd-year students (M=0.8923) when covariates (risk factors) were not considered.

DISCUSSION: In the current context of the limited effectiveness of measures to address the negative impacts of medical education on student well-being, this study showed that efficient use of the Wellness Assessment Program data can identify risk factors that have a significant impact on wellness.