title: Prevalence of stress in Casablanca medical students: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recently, an important literature data has reported that medical students experience stress more than students in other disciplines. In contrast, there is a significant shortage of the stress impact on the academic performance. The primary purpose of our study was to determine the prevalence of stress among Casablanca Medical students and to investigate if there is an association between stress and academic skills.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 275 participants studying at Casablanca Medical School were included. The study was conducted using a self-administered, anonymous questionnaire, which included four subscales on academic skills perception (Academic competence, Test competence, Time management and Strategic study habits) and a Test Anxiety scale to assess the degree of stress related to exams among medical students.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall findings showed that 52.7% of respondents were stressed by examinations, and the highest stress prevalence was among the fifth-year medical students. Measures of comparative stress degrees between male and female students did not show any statistical significant differences (p=0.34). Correlation analysis revealed negative association between stress and academic competence (-0.394), test competence (-0.426), time management (-0.240), strategic study (-0.183) respectively (p<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Medical educators and psychologists have to increase clinical awareness of stress among medical students, by establishing strategies for stress management.
authors.affiliation: Medical Informatics Laboratory, Clinical Neuroscience and Mental Health Laboratory, Casablanca Medical Faculty, Hassan II University, Morocco.
authors.forename: Dalal
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ben Loubir
authors.affiliation: Medical Informatics Laboratory, Clinical Neuroscience and Mental Health Laboratory, Casablanca Medical Faculty, Hassan II University, Morocco.
authors.forename: Zeineb
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Serhier
authors.affiliation: Chouaib Doukkali University, Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Department of English, El Jadida, Morocco.
authors.forename: Samir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Diouny
authors.affiliation: Clinical Neuroscience and Mental Health Laboratory, Casablanca Medical Faculty, Hassan II University, Morocco.
authors.forename: Omar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Battas
authors.affiliation: Clinical Neuroscience and Mental Health Laboratory, Casablanca Medical Faculty, Hassan II University, Morocco.
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Agoub
authors.affiliation: Medical Informatics Laboratory, Clinical Neuroscience and Mental Health Laboratory, Casablanca Medical Faculty, Hassan II University, Morocco.
authors.forename: Mohammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bennani Othmani
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009018:Morocco / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012577:Schools, Medical; D012737:Sex Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Morocco; Stress; academic skills; medical students; test anxiety