ABSTRACT
Background/Aims:
The aim of this study is evaluate health sciences students’ health-related quality of life and the factors that affect it.
Material and Methods:
It was conducted with 293 faculty of health sciences students selected using stratified sampling by department. A questionnaire about their demographic characteristics and the Short Form (SF)-36 were administered in face-to-face interviews, and some anthropometric measurements were made according to techniques.
Results:
The males’ mean scores on the social functioning, pain and general health perception subscales of SF-36 were higher than those of the females (p<0.05). The non-smokers had higher mean scores on the physical role limitation, emotional role limitation, vitality, mental health and pain subscales of SF-36 than students who smoked (p<0.05). The sports science students had the highest scores on vitality, mental health, pain and general health perception (p<0.05). The students with low risk of cardiovascular disease according to waist/height ratio had higher vitality scores (p<0.05).
Conclusion:
To conclude gender, smoking, department and anthropometric measurements affect quality of life. In order to determine the factors that affect quality of life, it may be useful to conduct more studies with larger samples.