Assessment of occupational stress and influencing factors in medical students

occupational stress identified as imbalance between occupational needs with individual’s abilities & demands. Occupational stress has somatic، psychological and behavioral effects. It seems that medical students have more severe degrees of occupational stress because of long period of education and mandatory presence in clinical and hospital environment. The goal of this study was evaluate of occupational stress and influencing factor in medical students of Iran University of medical science in two major categories of basic science and clinical medicine. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 516 medical students with history of at least 3 months of medical education in 2010. Evaluation of occupational stress was conducted using osipow questionnaire (ά=0. 83). From 650 students that entered the study، 516 student answered to questionnaire (response rate=80%). The average of stress score is 132 in basic science and 157 in clinical group. We have increasing total stress scores in students with higher education levels. Stress in older students was higher than younger students. Also، Stress was higher in smokers’ students and who have history use of sedative drugs. The stress was increased significantly based on educational years. According to higher levels of total stress score in students with higher levels of education، establishment of stress management courses in faculty of medicine and familiarization of medical students with occupational stress and coping methods may be useful for modification of occupational stress in these students