Analysis of the Quality of Life and Its Predictors among Different Year Medical University Students

Introduction: Medical students experience greater physical and psycho-emotional stress during their academic years compared to students of other professions. To develop prevention programs, it is necessary to study the factors that affect students’ health and the quality of life.

Objective: To compare the quality of life of medical university students between the years of study and identify its health and demographic predictors.

Materials and Methods: Using the SF-36 questionnaire to assess the quality of life, we conducted a survey of 1,884 first, third, and fifth-year university students specializing in general practice. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 22, and a multiple regression analysis was performed to identify quality of life predictors.

Results: Medical students had high physical but low psychological quality of life scores. The median scores of physical functioning reached 95 points, while the role functioning and vitality scores dropped to 33.0 and 45.0 points, respectively. We established sex-specific differences in the quality of life indicators. Median physical and mental component summary scores in boys were 80.0 and 61.0 points, while in girls they were 72.0 and 49.0 points, respectively (p = 0.001). We observed an increase in the physical component score among fifth-year students and the lowest psychological component scores among the third-years. The main predictors of the quality of life were stress, physical activity, housing conditions, and financial situation, the maximum contribution of which to the variance of the physical and psychological components reached 25.1 % and 38.8 %, respectively.

Conclusion: The quality of life indicators established in medical university students and the associated health and demographic factors should be taken into account when developing disease prevention and health promotion programs for students.

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