Exposure to violence, quality of life, depression and burnout among medical students in a state university of São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

Studies show that exposure to violence during medical education has a negative impact on the mental health of students. There are no national studies that seek to estimate the occurrence of exposure to violence and investigate its impact on mental health of students. Our goal is to describe the exposure to severe violence by gender and class and investigate the association between exposure to severe violence and depression, burnout and quality of life of students. METHODS: Cross sectional study conducted in public university in the state of São Paulo. All students from first to sixth year (n = 1072) received email with electronic invitation and link to access the questionnaire and 338 (31.5%) agreed to participate in the project. The associations between exposure to severe violence and depression, burnout and quality of life were evaluated by simple and adjusted for sex and cycle (Basic, pre-clinical and clinical) multinomial logistic regression models. RESULTS: Exposure to violence constitutes a risk factor for depression, burnout and poor assessment of quality of life. The associations remained significant even after adjustment for sex and class. Exposure to severe violence increases the chance of mild depression in 75% and severe depression in 598%. The association with burnout points to an increase in the chance of severe burnout of 2.33 times and exposed students evaluate their quality of life worse than students not exposed. The chance of a regular or negative evaluation is between 4 and 5 times greater in those exposed. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to violence during the course
contributes to the occurrence of depression, burnout and poor assessment of quality of life among medical students. Measures
to prevent the occurrence of abusive and violent situations and treat victims seems fundamental to improve the health and quality of life.