The levels of stress and depression among interns and clerks in three medical centers in Taiwan - a cross-sectional study

Background: Depression and heavy stress have been reported as two important problems for medical students in previous studies; and stress and depression levels were also related to gender and grades. The aims of this article were to investigate. the emotional problems of Taiwanese interns and clerks, and to clarifytheir relationship to work circumstances, identity of interns and clerks in the hospitals, gender discrepancy and their levels of stress and depression. Methods: Three medical centers in Taiwan were selected in this study. All interns in the three medical centers and clerks in Chang Gung Memorial Hospital were invited to complete an anonymous self-report questionnaire. The questionnaire included demographic data, levels of various stresses in hospitals recorded with visual analog scales, and a Chinese version of Zung's Selfadministered Depression Scale. One-way analysis of variance was also adopted to compare the distress scores, and the Scheffe test was chosen for the post hoc comparisons. Results: First, working in different medical centers was not a factor influencing levels of stress and depression of interns. Second, interns had higher stress levels of "work loading" and "occupational risks", and more depressive symptoms, such as "poor sleep quality", "poor appetite", "libido loss", "body weight loss", and "anhedonia". However, identity did not significantly impact levels of depression. Third, gender discrepancy showed significant influences on some stress sources and depressed symptoms. Conclusions: When comparing some depressive symptoms and stress sources among medical students, differences of gender and identities were statistically significant. Further longitudinal studies are needed.