Psychological stress in students from undergraduate courses in health professions: contribution to promote mental health/Estresse psicologico em estudantes de cursos de graduacao da area da saude: subsidios para promocao de saude mental

This study aimed at detecting the presence of psychological stress and associated symptoms among students of different undergraduate courses in the health area of the same public institution. This was a cross-sectional study carried out with a structured questionnaire and a psychometric inventory. Participants included 102 students from Physiotherapy, Speech Therapy, Medicine, Nutrition and Occupational Therapy courses, distributed by course at their various stages (initial, intermediate and final) in proportion to the number of students enrolled. All participants answered a questionnaire of social and demographic characterization and underwent a validated instrument for detection of stress and its symptoms in adults. Statistical analysis of the differences between the proportions of students with and without stress was carried out using Fisher's test (p