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Association of Self-Esteem with Demographic Characteristics of Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Madih Ariff*

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess the prevalence of low self-esteem and to determine the association of self-esteem with demographic characteristics of medical students.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study was carried out among medical students of Liaquat Medical Hospital, Jamshoro, which included students from second to the final-year MBBS. All data were collected through interviews. To determine self-esteem, Rosenberg's self-esteem scale was utilized, which is regarded as a highly reliable and valid tool for the quantitative assessment of self-esteem. The statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20 was used for data analysis. Multi-variable analysis of associations between student's characteristics and self-esteem was performed using logistic regression, keeping a p-value of <0.05 as statistically significant.

Results: From a total of 240 medical students, 153 (63.7%) were females, while 87 (36.3%) were males. The majority (n=126, 52.5%) of students aged 22 years or above, 68 (28.3%) were in the third-year while 99 (41.3%) were in the fourth-year, while 152 (63.9%) lived in the joint family system. Moreover, 59 (24.6%) of the students showed low self-esteem. A significant association of self-esteem was found with the educational year of the students, with students who were in the fourth-year had significantly higher odds of having normal/high self-esteem than students who were in the second-year (AOR=3.252; 95% CI=1.180 and 8.964; p-value=0.023). All other year students were observed to have an insignificant association with self-esteem in terms of age, gender, and family system.

Conclusion: Association of self-esteem with the only educational year of the medical students was found to be significant, while with gender, the association of self-esteem was found to be insignificant.