On-Boarding Graduate Student Baseline Measures

Purpose: Although health sciences education colleges, such as medicine, nursing, and dentistry, prepare students well to deliver high quality care to patients, few incorporate wellness and self-care into their academic programming. Although there have been numerous descriptive studies reporting the high prevalence of mental health problems and unhealthy behaviors as students transition from high school into college, few studies have described the mental and physical health of entering graduate health sciences students. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to describe the levels of depression, anxiety, stress, healthy lifestyle beliefs, healthy lifestyle behaviors, and Body Mass Index (BMI) of graduate students in health and rehabilitation sciences, dentistry, medicine, nursing, optometry, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine.

Methods: A descriptive study of the baseline findings from a wellness on-boarding program designed to enhance the health and wellness of graduate health sciences students was conducted. Data was collected with an on-line personalized wellness assessment and biometric screening during the first four weeks at the start of the semester from 91 students who consented to study participation. Valid and reliable measures included the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 for depression, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, the Brief Inventory of Perceived Stress (BIPS), the Healthy Lifestyle Beliefs Scale, the Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale along with a biometric screen.

Results: At baseline, 25.6% of the graduate students reported elevated symptoms of depression with 4.3% answering positively for suicidal ideation, and 22.6% reported elevated symptoms of anxiety. The average BIPS score was 16.0. Average BMI was 24.98 for female participants and 23.94 for male participants. Furthermore, 22.1 % were classified as overweight and 10.5% as obese. Healthy Lifestyle Beliefs and Behaviors average scores were 63.45 and 54.7 respectively. Other biometric results indicated 30.5% had a Total Cholesterol greater than 180 mg/dL and 16.8% at or above 200 mg/dL. One participant had a Hemoglobin A1c greater than 5.7%. Average systolic and diastolic blood pressures were 120 and 72 mmHg respectively.  

Conclusion:

Findings support a need to screen entering health sciences students for depression, anxiety, healthy lifestyle beliefs and behaviors along with obtaining BMI and a biometric screen. Targeting students with elevated depressive and anxiety symptoms with evidence-based interventions and support to engage in healthy lifestyle behaviors could lead to higher academic success and the prevention of mental health disorders during graduate school. Future studies are needed with this population to further explore these variables and determine their predictors.