European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

HEALTH RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG PHARMACY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SHARJAH

Abduelmula R. Abduelkarem*, Hafsa Mustafa, Dania Alcharfli and Fatmah Al-Jaffa

ABSTRACT

Objective: University students and especially pharmacy students are under a lot of pressure from different sources. Those stressors can affect their quality of life, thus affecting their academic outcomes and their future. The aim of this study is to assess health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of College of Pharmacy students and find out what factors make a difference in these findings. Methods: This paper-pencil survey included all students at the college of pharmacy from year one to year five; those who are enrolled in the academic year 2015/2016 who are around 650 students. SF-12v2 English version survey was used to assess five main domains of HRQoL. SPSS was used to tabulate the results. Results: About 322 (80.5%) students completed the survey. When asked about their general health about 50.6% of the participants stated excellent or good health. For the five main domains that the SF-12v2 assessed the students more than 50% of the students stated that their physical health did limit their activities, while in emotional capacity, 48% of the participants said that their activities were not affected by emotional problems. In the mental health domain that assessed feeling depressed, 54% of the students stated none of the time. Vitality was about 41% of students felt energetic most of the time. Finally, the social function of 41.9% of the participants was not affected by any physical or emotional problems. Conclusion: HRQoL of pharmacy students at the University of Sharjah is mainly positive, only affected by age and marital status as sociodemographic factors. A difference in lifestyle between students in the UAE and elsewhere in the world displays different results. More health related programs that support the students through their study at the college could be adopted to improve students’ HRQoL.

Keywords: Health-related quality of life; Pharmacy students; University students; SF-12; UAE.