Quality of life of Pakistani medical students studying in a private institution

Objectives: To find the quality of life of medical students using a World Health Organisation questionnaire. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted in February 2015 at Shifa College of Medicine, Islamabad, Pakistan, and comprised students studying in an integrated medical education system. The shortened version of World Health Organisation Quality of Life questionnaire comprising 26 items was used. Consecutive non-probability sampling was used to collect data which was analysed using SPSS 21. Result: Out of 417 medical students, 185(44.4%) were male and 232(55.6%) were female. Of them, 165(39.6%) were in pre-clinical years, while 252(60.4%) were in clinical years. Overall, 347(83.2%) students rated their quality of life as "good" or "very good". Environmental domain had the highest mean score of 70.43+/- 16.38 while Psychological Health domain had the lowest mean score of 66.48+/- 15.64. Conclusion: Medical education affects students' health, thus their quality of life varies. Identification of this is very important, since long-term stress can induce some permanent personality changes in individuals.