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It has been widely reported that medical students face considerable stress in medical school. In Malaysia, a brief (four-session, 2 h per week) group Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (b-GMBCT/Mindful-Gym) was developed to help medical students cope with stress. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the program in reducing stress among medical students in a Malaysian university. This was a single-group, prospective study. A total of 135 year-four medical students in psychiatric postings participated in the program (conducted in seven batches over 2 years). The following outcome variables were measured pre- and post-intervention: mindfulness, perceived stress, and general psychological distress. Intention-to-treat analyses showed significant reductions in perceived stress (M = −3.85, SD = 5.70, 95 % CI, -2.88 to −4.82, p < 0.001) and increase in mindfulness (M = 0.46, SD = 0.80, 95 % CI, 0.32 to 0.59, p < 0.001) with medium effect sizes from pre- to post-intervention. The percentage of participants who reported having significant general psychological distress (GHQ ≥ 4) reduced (p < 0.001) from 36 % (n = 48) at pre-intervention to 10 % (n = 14) after the program. Although there were significant reductions in perceived stress among Malay and non-Malay medical students, Malay students had significantly lower level of perceived stress (p = 0.03) after the program. This study found that the b-GMBCT is potentially an effective stress reduction program for medical students in Malaysia.
Pursuing undergraduate medical training can be very stressful and academically challenging experience. A 5-week mindfulness-based stress management (MBSM/Mindful-Gym) program was developed to help medical students cope with stress. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention in reducing stress among students in a medical school in Malaysia. Seventy-five medical students participated in the program. They were stratified according to years of studies and randomly allocated to intervention (N = 37) and control groups (N = 38). The following outcome variables were measured at pre- and post-intervention: mindfulness (with Mindful Awareness Attention Scale); perceived stress (with Perceived Stress Scale); mental distress (with General Health Questionnaire), and self-efficacy (with General Self-efficacy Scale). Hierarchical multiple regressions were used to analyse the effect of group (intervention vs. control) on changes in the outcome variables. There were significant improvements at one week post-intervention in all outcome variables: mindfulness (β = 0.19, ΔR2 = 0.04, p = .040, f (2) = 0.05), perceived stress (β = -0.26, ΔR2 = 0.07, p = .009, f (2) = 0.10); mental distress (β = -0.28, ΔR2 = 0.10, p = .003, f (2) = 0.15); and self-efficacy (β = 0.30, ΔR2 = 0.09, p < .001, f (2) = 0.21). Six months after the intervention, those who had joined the program reported higher self-efficacy compared to those in the control group (β = 0.24, ΔR2 = 0.06, p = .020, f (2) = 0.08); but there was no difference in other outcome measures. More than 90% of the participants found the program applicable in helping patients and all reported that they would recommend it to others. This study indicates that the program is potentially an effective stress management program for medical students in Malaysia.