A Multi-Institutional Approach to Assess the Mental Health of Medical Students

Purpose: It is well documented that medical students suffer from suboptimal mental health. 1 However, literature investigating the prevalence of mental health difficulties reports highly variable ranges and focuses primarily on depression, burnout, and suicide. 2–5 This innovation outlines the efforts of the Consortium for the Study of Medical Student Mental Health, a collaboration between 4 institutions to develop a standard of investigating a wide variety of understudied mental health domains using an instrument we call the Keck Mental Health Survey (KMHS). The KMHS collects data to achieve 3 primary goals. The first is to provide individual students with information about their personal mental health. The second is to give each institution data about mental health among their students to plan for wellness programs. Finally, the consortium uses the KMHS to investigate trends in medical student mental health on a national level. Approach: The KMHS was administered in the Fall semesters of 2019 and 2020. A wellness representative introduced the survey and students in the first 3 years of medical school completed it during class time. Fourth-year medical students were emailed a link to the survey with a video introduction and given 2 weeks to complete it. The KMHS included 16 self-report instruments previously shown to be valid in the general U.S. adult population to measure a variety of psychological conditions. In accordance with the first goal of the consortium, the survey provided personalized information to students about their results. To address the second goal, descriptive statistics were obtained to determine the proportion of students that fall into the at-risk categories of the instruments included in the KMHS. Finally, to accomplish the third goal, inferential statistical tests and modeling including paired t tests and regression will be conducted following completion of data collection for the 2020–2021 administration of the KMHS, which concludes in January. Outcomes: In 2019, a total of 1,819 medical students completed the KMHS at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California (n = 585), Loma Linda University School of Medicine (n = 539), the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine (n = 471), and the Yale School of Medicine (n = 224). This presentation will describe the aggregate distribution of students at-risk for the 16 conditions measured by the KMHS that include generalized anxiety disorder (57.23% at-risk), major depression (41.29% at-risk), burnout (41.29% at-risk), imposterism (21.61% at-risk), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (20.51% at-risk). Additionally, following completion of the second year of data collection at the end of January 2021 we will present inferential statistical findings that detail major trends in students’ responses across time. Discussion: The above proportions of medical students who fall within the at-risk categories on the instruments included in the KMHS expand the evidence of need for services and care for this population to include previously understudied conditions. The Consortium for the Study of Medical Student Mental Health continues to add institutional collaborators to our longitudinal study to develop a nationally representative sample to investigate these phenomena. Upon conclusion of the second year of data collection, we will perform inferential tests to begin looking at trends across the continuum of medical education to better serve our future physicians. Significance: The Consortium for the Study of Medical Student Mental Health advances the conversation about medical student mental health with a goal of promoting medical student wellness on an individual, regional, and national level

Burnout · Descriptive statistics · Environmental health · Family medicine · Medical education · Mental health · Population · Psychiatry · Clinical Psychology · Computer Science · Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout · Innovations in Medical Education · Medical Education and Admissions · Medicine · Psychology

• Medical Student Distress

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• Burnout Among U.S. Medical Students, Residents, and Early Career Physicians Relative to the General U.S. Population

  Liselotte N Dyrbye, Colin P West et al.•Academic Medicine•2014

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• Depression, Stigma, and Suicidal Ideation in Medical Students

  Thomas L Schwenk, Lindsay Davis et al.•JAMA•2010

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• Prevalence of Depression, Depressive Symptoms, and Suicidal Ideation Among Medical Students

  Lisa S Rotenstein, Marco Antonio Ramos et al.•JAMA•2016

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