KUBANG KERIAN, 25 August 2016 - Medical students who were feeling stressful and being depressed has led a lecturer from the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) School of Medical Sciences (PPSP), Dr. Muhammad Saiful Bahri Yusoff to conduct a study using 'The Medical Students Stress Source Questionnaires (MSSQ): A Valid Screening to Discover Sources of Stress of Medical Students'.

"Currently, many external researchers are using MSSQ for its reliability and validity, and being the only instrument able to pinpoint sources of stress," said Muhammad Saiful Bahri. The instrument has been in use since 2008 for such purposes.

Results from the test has been indexed in the PsyTEST Database published by the American Psychologist Association (APA).

Muhammad Saiful Bahri is also in the midst of discussions to collaborate with researchers from Taiwan and the United Kingdom on an upcoming project which involves conducting further tests on the MSSQ to see the highest level of reliability and validity it can go, to ascertain the actual reasons of the students being stressful, and to be able to repeat the test.

The project has also attracted the attention of other researchers from New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong as well as the local public universities.

The project was awarded 'Best of the Best Award for I-PHEX 2016' as well as 'Gold Medal I-PHEX 2016' at the International Innovative Practices In Higher Education Expo 2016, held at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Semarak, Kuala Lumpur recently.

Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin