Perceived stress level for clinical esidents before and during covid pandemics

Background and aims: COVID pandemic put substantial stress on the medical personnel and other health care practitioners. A life of a medical resident has been difficult even before the pandemics. In this study we discuss whether COVID eramade substantial changes to the perceived stress level of medical residents in a Russian city Methods: The Russian version of the 10-question questionnaire for perceived stress was recently validated [V. A. Ababkov et. al, doi: 10.21638/11701/spbu16.2016.202]. In this study we compare the results for two cohorts of medical residents Bashkir Medical University (Ufa, Russia). The data for the first cohort, n=98 were collected in 2019, and the data for the second cohort, n=99, were collected in 2020. The average age in both cohorts was 25 years. Results: There was no difference in the results before and during the epidemics. The overexertion level was 18.5(0.9) before pandemics and 18.5(0.9) during it, reaction level was 10.4(0.5) before and during pandemic, and the resulting stress was 28.8(1.2) in both cases (the number in parenthesis indicate the error estimate). The stress level was, owever, slightly higher than for the general population before pandemics, mostly due to an overexertion: the levels are 13.62(2.75), 10.82(4.29) and 24.44(6.58) correspondingly. Conclusion: The perceived stress level of medical residents was higher than in the general population before the pandemics. Surprisingly, it did not increase during the pandemic.