Pattern and perceived changes in quality of life of Vietnamese medical and nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic and governments’ response lead to dramatical change in quality of life worldwide. However, the extent of this change in Vietnamese medical and nursing students has not been documented. OBJECTIVES: The study aims to describe the quality of life and changes in quality of life of medical and nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic and examine the association of quality of life and changes in quality of life with fear of COVID-19 and other socio-economic and demographic factors. METHODS: The study was a cross-sectional study on all students of Hanoi Medical University from 3 majors: General Medicine, Preventive Medicine, Nursing (3672 invited students); from 7th to 29th of April 2020; using an online questionnaire that included demographic and academic information, the Vietnamese version of the SF-36 Quality of Life questionnaire and the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S). Linear and modified Poisson regression was used to examine the association between quality of life, changes in quality of life and other factors. RESULTS: The number of participants was 1583 (response rate 43%). Among 8 dimensions of the SF-36 (ranged 0–100), Vitality had the lowest score with a median score of 46. The median physical composite score (PCS) of the sample was 40.6 (IQR:20.8–53.2), 33.5% of the sample had an above-population average PCS score. The median mental composite score (MCS) of the sample was 20.3 (IQR:3.8–31.7), and 98.2% had an MCS score below average. 9.9% (95%CI:8.5%–11.4%) of the population reported a significant negative change in the quality of life. Fear of COVID-19 was not associated with significant changes in quality of life, nor MCS while having some association with PCS (Coef:-5.39;95%CI:-3to-7.8). Perceived reduction in quality of life was also associated with: being on clinical rotation COVID-19 (PR:1.5;95%CI:1.05–2.2), difficulties affording health services (PR:1.4;95%CI:1.02–1.95), obesity (PR:2.38;95%CI:1.08–5.25) and chronic disease (PR:1.92;95%CI:1.23–3), typical symptoms (PR:1.85; 95%CI:1.23–2.78) and atypical symptoms of COVID-19 (PR:2.32;95%CI:1.41–3.81). CONCLUSION: The majority of medical and nursing students had below average quality of life, with lower vitality and mental composite health score in the settings of COVID-19. Perceived decrease in quality of life was associated with clinical rotation, difficulties affording healthcare services and was not associated with Fear of COVID-19.