Positive Student Outcomes from Embedding Mental Wellness Trainings in an Advanced Undergraduate Physiology Course
Authors: Bryner Randy , Rentz Lauren , Leary Miriam 
Published: May 2024

Despite the rising prevalence of reported mental illness among college students, mental wellness programs delivered to college students show improvements in distress, depression, and anxiety. However, participation in these programs is often quite low and the long-term effcacy is unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine if a course-based mental wellness program administered to undergraduate physiology students would improve academic and overall perceived stress during the intervention and at longitudinal follow up the next academic year. We hypothesized the intervention would improve self-reported academic and overall perceived stress of undergraduate physiology students. Methods: In spring 2022, students (n=167) enrolled in a junior level undergraduate advanced physiology course (Course 1) were given six 30-minute training sessions by campus clinicians during class time. At the start of the following semester (fall 2022), a subset of these students (n=44) enrolled in a rigorous, senior level pathophysiology course (Course 2) and received one 30-minute refresher training session. All students completed the Perception of Academic Stress Scale (including subdimensions for perceived academic expectations, faculty workload expectations, and self-perceptions of academic stress) and Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale at the start and end of both semesters. Statistical analysis included 2x2 repeated measure ANOVAs to compare trends in survey scores across the semester based on eventual grade in Course #1, as well compare semester-wide trends in Course #1 and Course #2 in students that completed both courses. Pairwise comparisons were corrected using Tukey HSD. Results: In Course 1, there was a significant decrease across the semester in academic stress (54.94 ± 0.94 vs. 57.18 ± 0.94, p<0.001), including students’ self-perceptions of academic stress (21.22 ± 0.38 vs. 22.48 ± 0.38, p<0.01). This decrease was driven primarily by A/B students (p<0.05), while C/D students reflected no change. Compared with C/D students, A/B students in Course 1 reported lower academic stress (p<0.01), including lower perceived academic expectations, faculty workload expectations, and self-perceptions of academic stress post semester (p<0.01), and overall perceived stress (p<0.05), at both timepoints. Students who continued to Course 2 reported significantly lower overall stress (p<0.05) and academic stress (p<0.05) at the start of Course 2 compared with the start of Course 1. Conclusion: Mental wellness training embedded into rigorous physiology courses can positively impact undergraduate physiology students’ mental wellbeing, which may persist into the next academic year and may be mediated by academic success (i.e., course grades). Division of Exercise Physiology, WVU. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.