Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) and its correlation with academic performance of medical students

Quality of life and its impact on academic performance

  • Shahid Sarwar Services Institute of Medical Sciences
  • Abdul Aleem Services Institute of Medical Sciences
  • Muhammad Arif Nadeem Services Institute of Medical Sciences
Keywords: Academic performance, Health related quality of life, Mental health, Physical health.

Abstract

Objective: To determine health related quality of life (HRQOL) of medical students and its correlation with their academic performance.

Methods: Cross sectional study at Services Institute of Medical Sciences, included students of 4th and final year MBBS, who filled SF-36 proforma of HRQOL. Scores of 8-domains and of physical component and mental component summary were determined. Marks in all professional examinations were used to stratify students as high performers (≥ 70% marks) and average performing students (< 70%). HRQOL scores was correlated with academic performance using unpaired student’s t-test.

Results: Among 267 students included, mental health score (56.2±21.3) was lower than physical health component score (69.03±18.5). Role limitation due to emotional health (RE) (44.81), Vitality (VT) (54.19) and general health perception (GH) (58.89) had lower scores among 8domains of questionnaire. Female students had significantly lower scores in role limitation due to emotional problems (p value <0.04), vitality (<0.05), bodily pain (p value <0.05) and general health perception (p value<0.03) than male students. Physical health and role limitation due to physical health domains were better in high performing students.

Conclusion: Mental health of medical students is suboptimal, especially among female students. Students with better physical health have better academic performance.

How to cite this:
Sarwar S, Aleem A, Nadeem MA. Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) and its correlation with academic performance of medical students. Pak J Med Sci. 2019;35(1):266-270. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.1.147

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Author Biography

Shahid Sarwar, Services Institute of Medical Sciences

Associate Professor of Medicine

Department of Medicine, Services Institute of Medical Sciences Lahore

Consultant Gastroenterologist

Doctors Hospital and Medical Center Lahore

Published
2019-01-24
How to Cite
Sarwar, S., Aleem, A., & Nadeem, M. A. (2019). Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) and its correlation with academic performance of medical students: Quality of life and its impact on academic performance. Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, 35(1). https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.1.147

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