The impact of student life stress on health related quality of life among doctor of pharmacy students

College Student Journal, June, 2004 by Gireesh V. Gupchup, Matthew E. Borrego, Niranjan Konduri

Student-Life Stress Inventory scores were significantly higher for females than males. This result is consistent with a previous study which indicated that female students experience higher stress levels than male students (Misra et al, 2000). Also, mental component HRQOL scores (MCS-12) for females were significantly lower than those for males. It is logically intuitive that since females had higher stress scores, they should have correspondingly lower mental component HRQOL scores. However, the magnitude of the correlation coefficient between student-life stress and the mental component of HRQOL did not vary across genders. This result is consistent with the findings of Damush et al. (1997) which showed that the relationship of stressful life events and mental health were not moderated by gender.

It is important to consider the implications of this study. Though it is unclear whether the relationship of student-life stress to the mental component of HRQOL affected academic performance among the Pharm.D. students in this study, there is evidence to indicate that stress does affect academic performance among graduate students and medical students (Hodgson, & Simoni, 1995; Blumberg, & Flaherty, 1985). This indicates that any strategies to alleviate life-stress among college students could help improve academic performance.

The limitations of the study need to be considered before generalizing the results obtained. Since all questionnaires were administered after fall semester break it is possible that Student-life Stress Inventory scores could have been lower and HRQOL scores could have been higher than if questionnaires were administered at other more stressful times during the semester. This study was cross-sectional in nature and therefore varying stress and HRQOL scores throughout the semester could not be captured. Longitudinal studies are needed to address this issue. Because the subjects were volunteers, it is possible that varying stress levels could have affected the students' choice to participate in the survey. We assumed that the variation seen in stress levels was due to the level of school year, rather than differences between subjects.

In our study we did not include fourth year Pharm.D. students due to the fact that they were doing clinical rotations in different parts of New Mexico and the United States, and it was difficult to track each student's location. Therefore, further studies should be performed to include fourth year Pharm.D. students in order to accurately assess stress levels throughout the whole curriculum. Finally, since this study was performed at one college of pharmacy the results should be generalized to other colleges of pharmacy with caution. A national study including all colleges of pharmacy is warranted.

CONCLUSIONS

Higher student-life stress was related to lower mental health component HRQOL scores in this sample of Pharm.D. students. Strategies should be developed to reduce Student-life Stress and improve the mental component of HRQOL in these students. Additional research is needed to assess the impact of the relationship of student-life stress and the mental component of HRQOL on academic performance among Pharm.D. students.