Quality of Life and Stress Level Among Health Professions Students

Purpose: Numerous studies have shown that students of health professions report higher perceived stress and lower quality of life (QOL) levels than those in other disciplines. The purpose of this cross-sectional survey study is to assess variations in students’ QOL and perceived stress levels by demographic and college-related factors. Methods: The World Health Organization QOL (WHOQOL) – BREF and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14) were used to assess QOL and stress levels among students at King Saud Bin Abdul-Aziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS), Riyadh, during December 2015–June 2016. The WHOQOL-BREF comprises four broad QOL domains: physical health, psychological health, social relationships and environment. A total score from responses to the 14 questions in the PSS was computed. Univariate statistical analyses were performed using the Chi-square/Fisher's exact test or the t-test/Mann-Whitney U test, as appropriate. Linear regression models were used to examine the independent effect of numerous demographic and college-related factors on QOL and PSS. Results: A total of 479 students completed the questionnaire, representing a response rate of 95%. Fifty nine percent of the respondents were females. Then vast majority of respondents were single (96%) and reported a household income of SAR 10,000 or higher (82%). The distribution of college enrollment was as follows: Medicine 37%, Applied Medical Sciences 18%, Nursing 16%, Dentistry 13% and Pharmacy 14%. Scores in a number of QOL domains were significantly different by gender, household income, college, academic level and smoking status. Scores in all four QOL domains were negatively correlated with PSS, indicating that better QOL is strongly and highly significantly related to lower perceived stress levels with correlations ranging from −0.27 to −0.58 (p < 0.001). PSS scores were independently and significantly associated with QOL scores in the physical and psychological health domains. Conclusions: Most students that participated in this study appeared to acknowledge challenges in various aspects of their QOL which have been shown to be associated with their perceived stress. Further studies are needed to evaluate the effect of implementing educational and counseling programs to improve QOL and reduce stress levels among health sciences students