Evaluation of quality of life among dental students using WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire in Saudi Arabia: A cross sectional study

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to use modified version of WHOQOL-BREF to assess the well-being and QOL of dental students of King Saud University based on four major domains. METHODS: The questionnaire related to the survey was distributed to all dental students (N= 782) who were enrolled from 1st year to 5th year in College of Dentistry, King Saud University in the fall of 2018. The questionnaire comprised of four domains having different set of questions i.e. Physical domain, Psychological domain, Environmental domain and Social relationship domain. Two stand-alone questions related to (Overall Quality of life and Satisfaction with health) were also part of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire. Cronbach’s Alpha was used to assess the reliability of the WHOQOL-BREF domains. Paired t-tests were conducted to compare the means of the four domains and chi-square. Chi-square test was used to find association of demographic characteristics with four domains and two stand-alone questions. RESULTS: The overall quality of life and satisfaction with health of the dental students was found to be satisfactorily favorable with environmental domain and moderately favorable with social relationship and physical health domains. Physical health domain with psychological domain was statistically significant (p-value <0.001) whereas physical health domain with social relationship and environmental domain was also found to be statistically significant (p-value <0.001). Respondents, who highly rated their overall quality of life and satisfaction with health, had higher domain scores. CONCLUSION: In the present study, overall quality of life and satisfaction with health of dental students in King Saud University was found to be satisfactorily favorable.