The Relationship Between Stress and Eating Habits with the Gastritis at the Medical Program

Study Level of Student 2020 Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta

Syieva Renisa

20210350116

Introduction

According to the Big Indonesian Dictionary, college students are students studying at
tertiary institutions. College student academic activities are very different when compared to
high school. Likewise, medical students have very busy schedules compared to other majors.
This busyness also causes college students to pay less attention to their own health even
though medical students know the importance of maintaining a healthy body.

Busy lecture and exam schedules cause many medical students to experience stress
and often miss meals so they are less able to regulate their eating patterns properly. Stress can
be defined as a form of discomfort or threat that is felt due to heavy pressure or demands.
Likewise, a diet that should be able to provide additional nutrition for the body, but a poor
diet can actually cause digestive disorders. In fact, as medical students they should know that
stress and poor diet have a big influence on their digestive disorders.

Gastritis is a disease resulting from a process inflammation of the mucosa and

submucosa stomach (Pasaribu, 2014). If this disease is not treated properly, it can cause more
chronic digestive disorders. So appropriate treatment is needed regarding the management
that can be carried out, namely in the form of pharmacological and non-pharmacological
efforts. However, in pharmacology efforts, as medical students they will know more about
the types of drugs that can treat this digestive disorder.

Medical students are known to be at risk of experiencing psychological stress, mental

disorders and decreased life satisfaction. According to research conducted by Widianto et al
(2014), it was stated that there was a significant relationship between stress and the incidence
of gastritis (digestive tract disease), namely 15.6 times more respondents who were stressed
suffered from gastritis than respondents who did not experience stress. Other research also
concludes that stress sufferers are the main factor in someone experiencing various digestive
tract disorders where stress can increase intestinal permeability which can result in the release
of many pro-inflammatory mediators (Konturek, 2011). However, there has been no research
using final year medical student at Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta as research
subject on the relationship between stress and eating habits with incidence the gastritis.

In this context, the aim of the research is to determine the effect of stress and eating
habits on gastritis in final year medical students at Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta
and self-medication in choosing the drugs used. Therefore, the sub questions in this research
are as follows:

1. How do stress and diet influence gastritis?

2. What drugs are used as self-medication?

Literature review

Gastritis

Gastrointestinal disorders are a disease that occurs due to disruption of the digestive
system in humans. Gastritis is a common disease of the digestive tract which is often found in
society but is also often ignored because it is considered harmless. There are three main
causes of digestive tract diseases, namely irregular eating patterns, stress and bacterial
infections.

Gastritis is a disease with an inflammatory process or health problem caused by

irritation and infection of the gastric mucosa and submucosa. Patients with gastritis will
experience complaints such as stomach pain in the form of nausea, vomiting, stomach
weakness, bloating, tightness and pain in the pit of the stomach (Antimas et al., 2017).
Excessive production of HCI (stomach acid) in gastritis sufferers can cause friction between
the stomach wall and small intestine, causing pain known as gastric ulcers. However, gastritis
can be prevented from recurring by consuming small amounts of food and frequently
consuming mineral water to neutralize recurring stomach acid and consuming high fiber
foods such as fruit and vegetables to facilitate the digestive tract (Eka, 2020).

Stress and Eating Habits

Stress is a common thing that we can encounter in everyday life as college students
even research conducted by Seyle (1976, in Ridner, 2004) states that without stress, there is
no there will be life. Stress is an individual's response in the form of discomfort to the heavy
pressure they are facing. In the context of college students, there are four sources of stress for
college students, namely: interpersonal, intrapersonal, academic, and environmental (Ross,
Niebling, & Heckert, 2008). It was explained that interpersonal is a type of stress caused by
our relationships with other humans, for example misunderstandings that occur with friends,
girlfriends, even parents.

Meanwhile, intrapersonal stress is a type of stress caused by the individual himself,

for example difficulties in managing time and finances. Next is academic stress, namely
stress related to lecture activities and other factors which follows, for example, a busy lecture
schedule, bad test scores and a lot of coursework. The last is environmental stress, namely
stress caused by the surrounding environment other than academics, for example lack of
vacation time, traffic jams, and poor living environment comfortable (Ross, Niebling, &
Heckert, 2008).

The Correlation of Stress and Eating Habits with Incidence of Gastritis

Gastritis is a disease characterized by inflammation of the gastric mucosa caused by

irritation, infection and atrophy of the gastric mucosa (Sandi et al., 2021). Based on research
conducted by Fitriani et al. (2022), the results showed that there is a significant relationship
between eating patterns and the incidence of ulcers in teenagers as evidenced by the results of
the Chi Square statistical test, p value < value or 0.000 < 0.05, meaning there is a relationship
between eating patterns and incidence of stomach ulcers in adolescents. A person's eating
frequency can be said to be good if their eating frequency is regular and bad if their eating
frequency is irregular. It can be concluded that the more regular the diet, the lower the
incidence of stomach ulcers (Fitriani et al., 2022)

After conducting the research, the results of the questionnaire were obtained which
stated that the symptoms of ulcers in this study were similar to the results of research
conducted by Restiana (2019) and Putri (2018) which stated that on average respondents
experienced ulcers and ulcer recurrence. The incidence of ulcer recurrence in research
respondents was caused by respondents being busy and thinking during the preservation
period (anxiety, conflict, daydreaming, group activities, and the desire to try everything)
which caused stress and unhealthy lifestyles such as irregular eating patterns, consuming
food. Ready-to-eat food or drinks that can trigger ulcer recurrence or consuming foods with
excessive spicy content (Rodliya, 2022)

The results of the validity test carried out in this study showed that the average
respondent, namely 24 respondents, could be included in the moderate stress category
without symptoms of gastritis. The results of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test stated that there
was no significant relationship between stress levels and gastritis symptoms with a p value of
1.000 (>0.05). However, the results of this study are not in line with research conducted by
Putri et al (2018) and Arifiansyah (2020) which obtained validity test results which showed
that there was a relationship between stress and recurrence of gastritis in adolescents
(Rodliya, 2022)

Therefore, the research hypothesis is 1) There is a significant relationship between

stress and diet of final year medical students and gastritis. 2) There are drugs that are chosen
by self-medication with certain considerations when suffering from gastritis.

Research Methods

This research will be designed according to the quantitative research model. Primary
data collection was carried out using an online questionnaire method using Google Form.
This questionnaire will be designed to collect the views of final year medical students at
Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta. The Google Form survey questionnaire will be
designed based on three main aspects, namely collecting data on the level of stress
experienced by students, eating habits and choosing self-medication related to gastritis.

Participants in this survey were male and female students from the medical program
study level of student 2020 Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta. The views received
from students from various institutions were analyzed using various statistical tools. The
Statistical Program for Social Science (SPSS) test will be used to validate the conclusions in
this research.

Furthermore, the research procedure will be carried out by distributing a link

containing questions on a google form to medical program study level of student 2020
Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta whose results will be used in the research. The
study will be allocated in mid-January next year and will last approximately 2-3 months
considering its complexity.

The answers given by respondents in the questionnaire data will be processed

sequentially and systematically starting from descriptive analysis, carrying out validity and
reliability tests, normality and homogeneity tests, grouping or categories of data to various
more complex tests, such as regression analysis and correlation analysis for comparison and
draw valid conclusions. The observation value is given a positive value if the observation
value is more than the average (for populations with a symmetrical distribution) / median (for
populations with a symmetrical distribution). On the other hand, an observation value is
given a negative sign if it is less than the average or median value