Correlates and associated factors of stress, a cross-sectional analysis of the relation between stress and human health

Abstract

Stress is one of the pervasive problems of modern life. It affects individuals everywhere in the world specifically the economically and politically unstable areas including Iraq. The daily-life stressors make people in such areas agonize high stress that affect their health adversely. Hence, this study aims to measure stress, its related health issues, and coping strategies for people in Mosul/ Northern Iraq. A cross-sectional survey was performed among 553 adults over a period of 4 months. The questionnaire form was applied depending on PSS 10 for stress measurement. Data involved socio-demographic, habitual, and health related information for each participant, in addition to their coping activities to overcome stress. Descriptive and analytic statistics were used including means, SD, F-test, Chi-square, Fisher-Exact tests, and Ordinal logistic regression analysis. It was found that, the vast majority (>85%) of participants suffered from moderate to high stress, more significantly among young, female, unmarried, students, with poor familial relationships, and bullying unprotected participants (p-value ranges 0.005-<0.001). They perceived their health as poor and complaining from fatigue, headache, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, and amnesia (p<0.001). All coping strategies were performed infrequently by participants, but the most operative methods that kept people under low stress were praying, meditation, taking rest, and temporarily distancing from stressful events as predicted by regression analysis (p-value ranges 0.041-0.002). So, this study reveals alarming levels of stress among residents of Mosul which adversely affecting their health and daily living. Activities that are predicted to lower stress involved praying, meditation, taking rest, and avoiding stressors.