Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Competency‑based medical education (CBME) curriculum and its effect on prevalence of anxiety, depression and stress amongst medical undergraduates

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

. Ashish Goel 1
. Yashendra Sethi 1
. Arsalan Moinuddin 2
. Desh Deepak 1
. Priyanka Gupta 1

1 Department of Physiology, Government Doon Medical College, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

2 Vascular Health Researcher, Department of Sports and Exercise Physiology, School of Sport and Exercise, University of Gloucestershire, UK

Abstract
BACKGROUND: A growing body of literature now identifies higher levels of anxiety, depression, and
stress among medical students as a distinct mental health domain. The competency‑based medical
education (CBME) curriculum was introduced to revamp the existing curriculum with an aim to garner
constructive impact on the mental health of undergraduate medical students. As such, we sought
to draw comparisons between the mental health of medical students, studying the old (2018 batch)
and the new (2019 batch) medical education systems in India.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: We designed a survey that contained structured questions
pertained to anxiety (HAM‑A, GAD‑7), depression (HAM‑D, BDI), and stress (PSS) amongst medical
undergraduate students of 2018 and 2019 batches at the Government Doon Medical College (GDMC),
Dehradun, India.
RESULTS: Contrasting the 2018 and 2019 batches, the introduction of CBME resulted in a significant
two‑fold decrease in moderate anxiety, as exhibited by both HAM‑A (6.0 vs 3.0, P = 0.016) and
GAD‑7 (3.5 vs 1.0, P = 0.037) scales, although no significant change in mild and severe anxiety, and
overall depression (BDI: P = 0.05, HAM‑D: P = 0.05) or stress (PSS: P = 0.86) was found.
CONCLUSION: The CBME system has made a significant impact on the mental health of
undergraduate medical students for anxiety, albeit its effect on depression and stress remains
equivocal. Future studies are warranted to compare the effect of CBME in other undergraduate and
postgraduate courses across the country to help predict the psychological impact of the newfangled
CBME education system.

Keywords

Anxiety
competency‑based medical education (CBME)
depression
medical students
stress 
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Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 12, Issue 10
November 2022
Pages 1-7

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