Relations Between Stress Level and the Occurrence of Constipation to Medical Students

Abstract

Stress can be experienced by anyone. The number of events is increasing every year. This is
evidenced from the results of Basic Health Research in 2013 and 2018, namely an increase in the
prevalence of mental emotional disorders in Indonesian population aged ≥ 15 years from 6
percent to 9.8 percent. Stress can have a negative impact on the human body both physically and
psychologically. One of the effects of stress on the body is constipation. Unfortunately not much
literature discusses stress and constipation in more detail. This study aims to determine whether
there is a relationship between stress levels and constipation in the seventh semester students of
the 2016 Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Ukrida. This research uses analytic study
method with cross-sectional approach. Sampling is done by consecutive sampling method. The
study was conducted in December 2019 at the Ukrida’s medical campus. 150 out of 206 students
of 2016 from Ukrida Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences who are in their seventh semester,
are included in the inclusion criteria. The research material is primary data in the form of a
Constipation Scoring System questionnaire and Perceived Stress Scale. The results showed a
relationship between stress levels and constipation. This was obtained from the Chi Square test
calculation which was calculated using the SPSS computer program, where the p value was 0.01
(p <0.05).