Volume 27, Issue 135, May 2023

The impact of studying medicine on students’ social interactions in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2021-2022

Abdelaty Shawky Mohamed¹, Abdulrahman Bashir Ahmad Hussamuldin^2♦, Nujud Binhudayb², Abdulrahman Aloufi², Farah Qari², Majed Alanazi²

¹Associate professor of pathology, Almaarefa University, Saudi Arabia
²Medical Student, Almaarefa University, Saudi Arabia

^♦Corresponding author
Medical Student, Almaarefa University, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Background: The prevalence of social anxiety disorder, commonly known as social phobia, increases during adolescence. Social phobia can be colonized in those who involve interacting with, observing and behaving with many people. These include meeting people, including strangers, speaking in meetings or groups, starting a conversation, working, eating and drinking, going to school, shopping, showing up in public, using public toilets and public speaking, including conversations. Social anxiety disorder can be inherited through family history. It can also be treated with certain therapies and medications. Our aim is to identify the social concerns of medical students in Riyadh. Methods: A cross-sectional study. 180 Medical students, we used the social phobia inventory (SPIN) questionnaire to screen and measure severity of social anxiety from September 2022 to November 2022 with SPSS and MS software for analysis. Results: Majority of participants was females (66.1%) in the second year (25%) of age from 22-25 years (58.9%) as single (96.7%). Most of them were from Almaarefa University (86.7%) having very mild social phobia (38.9%). Relation between social phobia and gender (p value=0.05) and with academic year (p value=0.05) and with age (p value=0.12). Conclusion: The most common form of social anxiety among medical students was moderately low. Although females were more likely to develop social phobia than males, there was a substantial difference in severity between the two groups. In addition, the amount of social anxiety among students had little impact on their academic year.

Keywords: Medical Student, Social Phobia, Anxiety, Social Interaction

Medical Science, 2023, 27, e230ms2912

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi/v27i135/e230ms2912

Published: 20 May 2023