Introduction

Doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) student anxiety is not well accounted for in the literature. Anxiety carries the potential to cause impairment in functioning, worsen mental health outcomes, and adversely impact cognition, academic performance, and professionalism. The purpose of this study was to characterize anxiety among PharmD students in their first through fourth professional years. Secondary aims were to compare the prevalence of clinically significant anxiety and severity of anxiety among classes.

Methods

A cross-sectional, observational analysis was performed surveying 198 pharmacy students completing professional coursework. A survey shared via social media containing the Zung Self-Anxiety Scale and general demographic questions was distributed to pharmacy students to assess the prevalence and severity of anxiety in first through fourth professional year students. Clinically significant anxiety was defined as a raw score ≥ 36. A one-way analysis of variance was performed to compare the means of all classes and Tukey's honestly significant differences test was performed to evaluate for statistical differences between individual classes.

Results

Clinically significant anxiety was evident in 65% of respondents. The second professional year class reported the highest rate of anxiety with 84% meeting the threshold for clinically significant anxiety. The fourth professional year class reported the lowest rates with 51% reporting clinically significant anxiety.

Conclusions

Anxiety is prevalent in pharmacy students with higher levels of anxiety observed in earlier years. This work highlights opportunities to expand student mental health resources. Further studies are warranted to identify factors contributing to pharmacy student anxiety.

中文翻译：

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药学专业学生第一至第四年焦虑程度的评估

介绍

药学博士 (PharmD) 学生的焦虑在文献中没有得到很好的解释。焦虑有可能导致功能障碍，恶化心理健康结果，并对认知、学业成绩和专业精神产生不利影响。本研究的目的是表征药学博士学生在第一到第四个专业年的焦虑。次要目的是比较班级之间具有临床意义的焦虑的流行率和焦虑的严重程度。

方法

对 198 名完成专业课程的药学学生进行了横断面观察分析。通过社交媒体共享的一项调查包含 Zung 自我焦虑量表和一般人口统计问题，该调查分发给药学专业的学生，​​以评估第一至第四专业学生焦虑的患病率和严重程度。临床上显着的焦虑被定义为原始分数 ≥ 36。进行单向方差分析以比较所有类别的平均值，并进行 Tukey 诚实显着差异测试以评估各个类别之间的统计差异。

结果

65% 的受访者有明显的临床焦虑。第二个专业年班报告的焦虑率最高，84% 达到临床显着焦虑的阈值。第四个专业年班报告的比率最低，51% 报告临床显着焦虑。

结论

焦虑在药学学生中很普遍，在早年观察到的焦虑水平较高。这项工作突出了扩大学生心理健康资源的机会。需要进一步研究以确定导致药学学生焦虑的因素。