Quality of Life Related to Environment of Dental and Medical Student’s Life and Its Correlation with Stress

Bahareh Tahani; Shiva Jami

doi:10.18502/ijds.v17i4.8654

Bahareh Tahani Assistant Professor, Dental Research Center, Department of Oral Public Health, School of Dentistry, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
Shiva Jami Dental Student, Dental Students Research Center, School of Dentistry, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/ijds.v17i4.8654

Keywords: Quality of life, Psychological stressor, Dental students, Medical students.

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to investigate the quality of life (QOL) score based on stress scale, the relationship between the two and their influencing factors in medical and dental students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.

Materials and methods: This cross sectional study was carried out on 235 dental students and 488 medical students between April-June 2020. In this study 24 items of physical quality, psychological quality, social quality, environmental quality and 2 general health items related to quality of life and 14 items related to stress level were assessed using the electronic questionnaire of WHOQOL-BREF. The collected data was fed into SPSS and analyzed by ANOVA, T-test, correlation coefficients and linear regression test (α = 0.05).

Results: The mean for total quality of life was 78.5 ± 14.1 (26-120) and 27.6 ± 7.2 (10-56), respectively. In both professions, the relationship between QOL and total stress showed a significant and inverse relationship (p value < 0.001, r = -0.78). In dental students, four domains and the total score were significantly higher and stress levels were significantly lower compared to medical students. In both professions, women had significantly higher levels of stress than men (p value = 0.03). Based on academic year, in medical students mean for total QOL scores (p value = 0.04), physical (p value < 0.001) and emotional quality (p value = 0.07) were significantly different and while the academic year increased, the QOL scores decreased.

Conclusion: There is a significant and inverse relationship between QOL and stress level. The level of stress in females is higher than in males and also in medical students than in dental students. The score of quality of life and academic year were inversely correlated.