Stress among international postgraduate students at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC)

Being a student, especially postgraduate student, could expose to stress, and being international postgraduate student would exposed to more stress to the student. This study was conducted to assess stress level among international postgraduate students and its associated factors. A cross sectional study was conducted among international postgraduate students registered at UKMMC, Cheras campus, Kuala Lumpur. Questionnaires were distributed to 119 students,. Main international student are Arabs (52.4%). The stress prevalence is 54.8%. Younger age group are more stressful with mean age 33.94 (P=0.004), while shorter duration is associated with stress, P=0.035. Relationship with neighbour and relationship with local colleagues are shown to be associated with stress with P value 0.011 and 0.005 respectively. This study reveals the presence of significant prevalence of stress among international postgraduate students. The student socio-demographic character that has shown to be associated with stress in this study was age. The poor relationships with local colleagues as well as the poor relationships with the neighbours have shown to contribute to the stress among international students