Evaluation of musculoskeletal system problems of phase-6 students in a medical faculty and investigation of their relationship with depression-anxiety-stress levels

Objective: Our study was performed to evaluate the musculoskeletal system disorders and levels of depression, anxiety, stress in phase-6 students of Ankara ensYıldırım Beyazıt University Faculty of Medicine; to reveal their causes and relationship statuses. Methodology: Our cross-sectional study was conducted at Faculty of Medicine, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University. A total of 232 phase-6 students receiving education between May 2023 and June 2023 were included in the study with their written consent. The data of the study was collected by the researcher physician using a questionnaire through a face-to-face interview technique. The first part of the questionnaire included questions about sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, the Turkish version of the Cornell Musculoskeletal Disorders Questionnaire (T-CMDQ) scale to evaluate the musculoskeletal system disorders of participant in the second part and the Turkish Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) was used to evaluate the depression, anxiety and stress levels in the third part. The data obtained were analyzed with the SPSS 25.0 package program. Results: The most frequently reported areas of pain among participants were back (91.38%), neck (89.66%), lower back (89.22%), hip (87.07%) and right wrist (82.33%). In the study, total Cornell scores and neck, right wrist scores of males higher than females statistically significant (p<0.05). Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) and T-CMDQ scores of the participants' were compared. A significant/strong level of positive directional correlation was determined between T-CMDQ total score and DASS-21 Depression, Anxiety and Stress scores in each subheading separately (p<0.001). A significant/strong correlation was found between depression total score and T-CMDQ neck score. A moderate positive correlation was found between anxiety total score and T-CMDQ neck and hip scores. A significant/strong positive correlation was found between stress total score and T-CMDQ neck score. There was a moderate positive correlation was found between the participants' daily spending time at the desk and T-CMDQ neck, right shoulder, and back total scores. Conclusion: Phase-6 students in Faculty of Medicine, spend an average of 8 hours sitting at a desk due to preparing for the Medical Specialty Exam (TUS). This duration can reach up to 16 hours. As a result of our study presence of a relationship between musculoskeletal disorders and psychosocial factors and these two conditions have been found to increase each other's severity. Hospital environments and study areas increase psychosocial risk factors, ergonomic risk factors and the formation of musculoskeletal disorders for medical candidates. Implementing both individual and managerial measures, increasing education in this field and organizing physical activity programs are important for reducing these risks. It is believed that a biopsychosocial approach will be effective in preventing, diagnosing, and treating musculoskeletal disorders. Keyword: Cornell score, DASS-21, ergonomics, musculoskeletal disorders, students of medical faculty