HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG DENTAL STUDENTS OF A PRIVATE INSTITUTE.

Abstract

Objective: To assess health-related Quality of Life and its relation to mental health problems and socio-demographics of undergraduate students studying in a private dental college. Materials and Methods: Data was obtained using a cross sectional study (prevalence survey) involving 170 students studying in a private dental college. Study used the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) to determine the self-perceived health aspects and depressive symptoms. Analysis was performed correlating the health scores with the age, gender, year of study, household income, type of accommodation and depression symptoms using SPSS 22. For statistical analysis, interpretation of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation and Chi-squared Tests were used. Results: Age of students ranged between 18 and 24 years. Out of the 170 students, 41.8% were males and 58.2% were females. 50.6% of the subjects had depression (BDI score>9). Mean HRQoL was higher in males(63.04) as compared to females(53.42). Second year students showed significantly lower scores in role limitations caused by emotional problems(RE)(p=0.015), vitality(VT) (p=0.045), general mental health(MH)(p=0.004), Social Functioning(SF)(p=0.008) as well as in the mean Mental Health Summary(MHS (p=0.001) and total mean HRQoL(0.014). Conclusion: The Health-related Quality of Life(HRQoL) survey results indicate that the presence of depressive symptoms have negative effect on the overall HRQoL scores. Moreover, females and the second-year students have poorer HRQoL scores as compared to their counterparts.