ReviewBMJ open2024
Interventions to promote medical student well-being: an overview of systematic reviews.
Review in BMJ open, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses 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
16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The effectiveness of interventions designed to enhance and maintain medical student wellbeing: a systematic review.BMC medical education · 2026Pooled it
- Effect of mind-body therapies on anxiety, depression and sleep quality in college students: a network meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Hypnosis reshapes multilevel stress response and enhances executive performance in stressed medical students.Scientific reports · 2026Trial
- National Task Force on Mental Health and Well-being of Medical students: A critique.The Indian journal of medical research · 2026Article
- Trajectories and Adaptive Recalibration of Self-Efficacy in Brazilian Medical Students: A Longitudinal Study With Implications for Educational Support.The clinical teacher · 2026Article
- Mental health and burnout among Swiss medical students living in contexts of deprivation: a longitudinal study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Physiological adaptation during heart rate variability biofeedback in young adults: A survival analysis in high-stress academic environments.Physiological reports · 2026Article
- Structured peer engagement for early-stage medical students provides a safe space and creates a sense of community, combatting imposter syndrome and improving wellbeing.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Are we preparing our medical students to fail with a reactive not proactive approach to managing workplace stress, reducing burnout and addressing mental health problems?Future healthcare journal · 2026Article
- Exploring stress and coping skills of medical students: a repeated cross-sectional cohort study.International journal of medical education · 2026Article
- From body to mind: how body-mind axial awareness training enhances body awareness, mindfulness, positive embodiment and mental health in healthcare students.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2026Article
- Conflict resolution strategies and their association with perceived stress among German medical students: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Mental health and professional identity formation amongst medical students in Singapore: a qualitative study.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Long-Term Impact of an Interprofessional Health Promotion Curriculum in Healthcare Students.Medical science educator · 2025Article
- Mediating effect of psychological resilience in the relationship between cognitive emotion regulation and emotional well-being of medical students.Northern clinics of Istanbul · 2025Article
- Prevalence and Correlates of Anxiety and Depression Symptoms Among Medical Students: The Role of Student Debt Burden.Journal of medical education and curricular developmentArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo conduct an overview of systematic reviews that explore the effectiveness of interventions to enhance medical student well-being.
designOverview of systematic reviews. DATA SOURCES: The Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews, MEDLINE, APA PsychInfo, CINAHL and Scopus were searched from database inception until 31 May 2023 to identify systematic reviews of interventions to enhance medical student well-being. Ancestry searching and citation chasing were also conducted. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: The Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews V.2 tool was used to appraise the quality of the included reviews. A narrative synthesis was conducted, and the evidence of effectiveness for each intervention was rated.
results13 reviews (with 94 independent studies and 17 616 students) were included. The reviews covered individual-level and curriculum-level interventions. Individual interventions included mindfulness (n=12), hypnosis (n=6), mental health programmes (n=7), yoga (n=4), cognitive and behavioural interventions (n=1), mind-sound technology (n=1), music-based interventions (n=1), omega-3 supplementation (n=1), electroacupuncture (n=1) and osteopathic manipulative treatment (n=1). The curriculum-level interventions included pass/fail grading (n=4), problem-based curriculum (n=2) and multicomponent curriculum reform (n=2). Most interventions were not supported by sufficient evidence to establish effectiveness. Eleven reviews were rated as having 'critically low' quality, and two reviews were rated as having 'low' quality.
conclusionsIndividual-level interventions (mindfulness and mental health programmes) and curriculum-level interventions (pass/fail grading) can improve medical student well-being. These conclusions should be tempered by the low quality of the evidence. Further high-quality research is required to explore additional effective interventions to enhance medical student well-being and the most efficient ways to implement and combine these for maximum benefit.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.