Spiritual Health and Coping Strategies Among Medical Students in Crisis Situation: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Objective: To assess the spiritual health of medical students and to identify the coping strategies used in crisis situation. Methods: A cross sectional study was done during 2017 at Hamdard College of Medicine & Dentistry, Karachi. Simple random sampling technique was used for data collection. Spiritual Health Assessment Scale was used to measure the level of spiritual health and Brief COPE scale was used to assess the varying coping strategies practiced in response to stress. Descriptive analysis was done, overall spiritual health score was obtained, while frequencies of various coping attributes were determined by using SPSS version 22. Independent t-test was used for association of different domains of spiritual health between male and female students. P-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Out of total 511 students, 298 (58.3%) were male and 213 (41.7%) female. Mean age was 21 +/- 1.8 years. Students 261 (51.1%) were found to have good spiritual health. Statistically significant (P<0.05) differences was observed between male and female students doing gratitude, act according to moral values, introspection, knowing purpose of own life, own strengths, solutions to deal with weaknesses, performing yoga to achieve and maintenance of spirituality. Students using active coping were 146 (28.6%), substance use 289 (56.6%), turning to religion 188 (36.8%) and humour 178 (34.4%). Conclusion: The study reveals that most of the medical students have good spiritual health. Coping strategies used by medical students during their academics are mainly substance use, active coping and turning to religion for management of stress.