Observational studyPloS one2020
Medical students in distress: The impact of gender, race, debt, and disability.
Observational study in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 90 citations in OpenAlex.
- Medical students with specific learning disabilities: mixed-methods systematic review of the prevalence, academic performance, challenges, and perceived impact of support interventions.BMC medical education · 2026Pooled it
- Exploring institutional factors of resilience in undergraduate medical training: a thematic inquiry into experiences of medical students.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Associations of mindful eating and physical activity with mental workload and sleep quality in medical interns.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Screening Medical Students for Depression Risk: The Effects of Disability Status.Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry · 2026Article
- A French national remote peer tutoring initiative: the gastroenterology course example.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Perceived Stress and Subjective Happiness in Medical Students Before and After a Wellness Speaker Session.Cureus · 2026Article
- Identifying risk factors for burnout and self-harm thoughts among medical students: a multi-institutional survey study.Journal of osteopathic medicine · 2026Article
- "Mindful eating: a comparative study between medical and non-medical students of Tanta University".Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2026Article
- The Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resilience on Medical Student Well-Being.Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry · 2026Article
- Beyond the Stethoscope: A Systematic Review of Mental Health Disparities among Medical Students of Color during Medical Training.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2025Article
- Inclusion in Fieldwork: Academic Fieldwork Coordinators' Perspectives on Accommodating Disabled Occupational Therapy Students.Canadian journal of occupational therapy. Revue canadienne d'ergotherapie · 2025Article
- How Medical Students Manage Depression, Anxiety, and Stress: A Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Mapping the multidimensional factors of medical student resilience development: A scoping review.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Disparities in well-being outcomes among medical students: a comparative study between medical students with and without disability.BMC medical education · 2025Observational
- Disability Status and Induction Into US Medical Honor Societies.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Associations Between Family Medicine Residency Applicants' Debt Concern and Their Perception of Virtual Residency Interviews.PRiMER (Leawood, Kan.) · 2025Article
- Article
- How COVID-19 pandemic and Ukrainian crisis shaped mental health services for medical students in Poland?BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Evaluating the Impact of Gender, Race, and Training Year on Internal Medicine Residents' Experiences Across the United States.The Permanente journal · 2024Article
- Medical students in distress: a mixed methods approach to understanding the impact of debt on well-being.BMC medical education · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn 2012, over half of US medical students experienced burnout and depression. Since that time, there have been many changes to student demographics, school resources and awareness of burnout in the medical field altogether. New tools are also available to screen for student distress, a condition that correlates with low mental quality-of-life, suicidal ideation and serious thoughts of dropping out. Despite increased attention on wellbeing and improved screening methods, no large-scale studies have evaluated student distress in the modern era of medical education. The objective of this study was to determine the current prevalence of medical student distress and contributing risk factors.
methodsStudent wellbeing from a national cohort of US medical students was measured with an electronic survey in a prospective, observational survey study from 2019-2020. Medical student distress was defined as a Medical Student Wellbeing Index (MS-WBI) of ≥4. Demographic details including age, race, gender, marital status, disability, desired specialty, and debt burden were evaluated in a multivariate logistic regression model to determine possible risk factors for the development of distress.
resultsA total of 3,162 students responded to the survey, representing 110 unique medical schools. Of these respondents, 52.9% met criteria for distress and 22% had either taken or considered taking a leave of absence for personal wellbeing. Independent risk factors for distress included involvement in the clinical phase of medical school (OR 1.37); non-male gender (OR 1.6); debt burden >$20,000 (OR 1.37), >$100,000 (OR 1.81), and >$300,000 (OR 1.96); and disability status (OR 1.84).
conclusionsMedical student wellbeing remains poor in the modern era of medical education despite increased attention to wellbeing and increased availability of wellbeing resources. Disability status is a novel risk factor for distress identified in this study. The persistence of previously identified risk factors such as non-male gender, debt burden and clinical phase of school suggest that efforts to curb medical student distress have been inadequate to date.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.