4
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Psychometric Properties of the World Health Organization’s Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) Questionnaire in Medical Students

      research-article

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Background and Objectives: Studies on the effects of studying on a medical student’s quality of life are sparse. The World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire is a widely used scale that enables the assessment and international comparisons of the quality of life. The aim of this study was to evaluate psychometric properties of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire among Serbian medical students. Material and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study that involved 760 medical students at a state medical faculty at the University of Kragujevac, Serbia. The reliability of the WHOQOL-BREF was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and test–retest analysis, and the validity was examined using principal component analysis, with Promax rotation method. Results: Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the whole WHOQOL-BREF scale was 0.896. Internal reliability for all domains was above 0.70, except for the domain “Social Relationships” (0.533). The test–retest reliability for all domains was significant at p < 0.01 level, showing good stability of the scale. Principal component analysis with Promax rotation method indicated four main components that explained 49.5% of variance. Conclusion: The Serbian version of the WHOQOL-BREF scale showed satisfactory psychometric properties that facilitate estimation of the quality of life of medical students.

          Related collections

          Most cited references21

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          Systematic review of depression, anxiety, and other indicators of psychological distress among U.S. and Canadian medical students.

          To systematically review articles reporting on depression, anxiety, and burnout among U.S. and Canadian medical students. Medline and PubMed were searched to identify peer-reviewed English-language studies published between January 1980 and May 2005 reporting on depression, anxiety, and burnout among U.S. and Canadian medical students. Searches used combinations of the Medical Subject Heading terms medical student and depression, depressive disorder major, depressive disorder, professional burnout, mental health, depersonalization, distress, anxiety, or emotional exhaustion. Reference lists of retrieved articles were inspected to identify relevant additional articles. Demographic information, instruments used, prevalence data on student distress, and statistically significant associations were abstracted. The search identified 40 articles on medical student psychological distress (i.e., depression, anxiety, burnout, and related mental health problems) that met the authors' criteria. No studies of burnout among medical students were identified. The studies suggest a high prevalence of depression and anxiety among medical students, with levels of overall psychological distress consistently higher than in the general population and age-matched peers by the later years of training. Overall, the studies suggest psychological distress may be higher among female students. Limited data were available regarding the causes of student distress and its impact on academic performance, dropout rates, and professional development. Medical school is a time of significant psychological distress for physicians-in-training. Currently available information is insufficient to draw firm conclusions on the causes and consequences of student distress. Large, prospective, multicenter studies are needed to identify personal and training-related features that influence depression, anxiety, and burnout among students and explore relationships between distress and competency.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: found
            Is Open Access

            Quality of Life of Medical Students in China: A Study Using the WHOQOL-BREF

            Objective The aim of this study was to assess the quality of life (QOL) of medical students during their medical education and explore the influencing factors of the QOL of students. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in June 2011. The study population was composed of 1686 medical students in years 1 to 5 at China Medical University. The Chinese version of WHOQOL-BREF instrument was used to assess the QOL of medical students. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were assessed by Cronbach’s α coefficient and factor analysis respectively. The relationships between QOL and the factors including gender, academic year level, and specialty were examined using t-test or one-way ANOVA followed by Student-Newman–Keuls test. Statistic analysis was performed by SPSS 13.0. Results The overall Cronbach’s α coefficient of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was 0.731. The confirmatory factor analysis provided an acceptable fit to a four-factor model in the medical student sample. The scores of different academic years were significantly different in the psychological health and social relations domains (p<0.05). Third year students had the lowest scores in psychological health and social relations domains. The scores of different specialties had significant differences in psychological health and social relations domains (p<0.05). Students from clinical medicine had the highest scores. Gender, interest in the area of study, confidence in career development, hometown location, and physical exercise were significantly associated with the quality of life of students in some domains (p<0.05). Conclusions The WHOQOL-BREF was reliable and valid in the assessment of the QOL of Chinese medical students. In order to cope with the influencing factors of the QOL, medical schools should carry out curriculum innovation and give the necessary support for medical students, especially for 3rd year students.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: found
              Is Open Access

              World Health Organization Quality-of-Life Scale (WHOQOL-BREF): Analyses of Their Item Response Theory Properties Based on the Graded Responses Model

              Objective This study has used Item Response Theory (IRT) to examine the psychometric properties of Health-Related Quality-of-Life. Method This investigation is a descriptive- analytic study. Subjects were 370 undergraduate students of nursing and midwifery who were selected from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. All participants were asked to complete the Farsi version of WHOQOL-BREF. Samejima's graded response model was used for the analyses. Results The results revealed that the discrimination parameters for all items in the four scales were low to moderate. The threshold parameters showed adequate representation of the relevant traits from low to the mean trait level. With the exception of 15, 18, 24 and 26 items, all other items showed low item information function values, and thus relatively high reliability from low trait levels to moderate levels. Conclusions The results of this study indicate that although there was general support for the psychometric properties of the WHOQOL-BREF from an IRT perspective, this measure can be further improved. IRT analyses provided useful measurement information and demonstrated to be a better methodological approach for enhancing our knowledge of the functionality of WHOQOL-BREF.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Journal
                Medicina (Kaunas)
                medicina
                Medicina
                MDPI
                1010-660X
                1648-9144
                04 December 2019
                December 2019
                : 55
                : 12
                : 772
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
                [2 ]Institute of Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia; sandra.grujicic2014@ 123456gmail.com
                [3 ]Department of Biochemistry, Ave Maria University, Ave Maria, FL 34142, USA; ssipetic@ 123456yahoo.com
                [4 ]Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia; ivanaanatom@ 123456yahoo.com
                [5 ]Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia; kocicsanja@ 123456yahoo.com
                [6 ]Department of Epidemiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia; drmilenailic@ 123456yahoo.com
                Author notes
                [* ]Correspondence: ajrini10@ 123456gmail.com ; Tel.: +381-11-3636300
                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5347-3264
                Article
                medicina-55-00772
                10.3390/medicina55120772
                6955708
                31817180
                5a299393-9c73-436e-8125-9f130473e197
                © 2019 by the authors.

                Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

                History
                : 05 November 2019
                : 02 December 2019
                Categories
                Article

                quality of life,whoqol-bref,medical students,reliability,validity

                Comments

                Comment on this article