The Effect of Mental Health Status on the Quality of Life of Faculty of Medicine Students during the Pandemic Coronavirus Disease 2019 Period

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease which has not been balanced with effective protocols can create mental health problems which could affect the quality of life; as of today, there is not any research that examines the influence of both factors. AIM: This study purpose was to analyze the mental health status on the quality of life amongst medicine students during COVID-19 period. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional survey on 361 students from Faculty of Medicine Tanjungpura University. This study was conducted from June 2019 to November 2020 by spreading Depression Anxiety Stress Scale questionnaire and a WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire through online. The data analysis was administered using Kruskal–Wallis statistics. RESULT: The students’ mental health status was dominantly on the normal category with depression domain by 323 students (89.5%), anxiety domain by 311 students (86.1%), and stress domain by 343 students (95%). The quality of life measurement was in category medium in all domains which are physical health (88.6%), psychological health (92.5%), social relationships (50.7%), and environment (78.7%). There was significant effect of mental health status of depression and anxiety toward the aspect of physical health, psychological health, and social relationships (p < 0.05). Stress significantly influenced all domains of quality of life, and there was no significant effect of mental health status domain depression (p = 0.051) and anxiety (p = 0.881) toward the environment aspect. CONCLUSION: Students’ mental health status in this research belongs to the category normal with moderate level in quality of life. To compare, there was a significant effect of mental health status toward the quality of life domains. The good application of self-coping mechanisms and the social encouragement from the environment is suitable intervention strategies during the pandemic COVID-19 period.