The impact of the spiritual dimension in determining anxiety among medical students from Tîrgu Mureş and Chişinău

Abstract

Background: Relying on faith during the stressful moments of the everyday life, is an extremely debated theme in many of the psychological and psychiatric books. Every time we face a strenuous or difficult moment in our lives that exceeds our physical or mental abilities, faith seems to be the most common way of overcoming stress, depression and the lack of meaning of our existence. Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of the spiritual dimension in determining anxiety among medical students from Targu Mures and Chisinau. Material and method: In order to accomplish this study we used the S.T.A.I. (State Trait Anxiety Inventory) and D.S.E.S. (Daily Spiritual Experience Scale) questionnaires, on a total of 211 students, of which 101 from Chişinău and 110 from Targu Mures. For the statistical results we used Graphpad. Results: According to data analysis we reached the following results: there is a significant difference between the level of anxiety of the students from both universities (p=0,0053), but also a disparity concerning the students from the final years of medical school (p=0,0103). As far as the spirituality is concerned we noticed a significant difference only for the students from years 1-2 and 5-6 from Targu Mures (p=0,046). Conclusion: Even though the level of spirituality is similar for the students from both universities, the degree of anxiety varies. The first two years of medicine at both universities go with an equivalent level of anxiety, while in the final years a significant difference can be observed. The variation of spirituality for the two categories of students varies only in Targu Mures, while in Chişinău the rates do not change.