title: Health and spirituality 'walk along' in wellness journey of medical students.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess and compare knowledge, attitudes and practices of male and female medical students of Karachi in the context of physical, emotional and spiritual wellness.
  
  
  METHODS
  The cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was conducted from January to December 2010, comprising randomly selected 800 male/female medical students in eight medical colleges of Karachi. The responses--'never,' 'sometimes,' 'mostly' and 'always' (numbered 0-4 )--were analysed in terms of frequency, proportion and percentages by Predictive Analysis Software (PASW) version 18. Chi-square test was applied for comparison of categorical aspects of wellness, and results were declared significant at p < 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 800 questionnaires, 736 (92%) fully-completed questionnaires comprised the study universe. According to the survey, 503 (68.37%), 504 (68.45%) and 658 (89.35%) medical students were aware of the concept of physical, emotional and spiritual wellness respectively. Males had greater involvement in physical activity (p < 0.001), while females selected healthy diet (p < 0.03). The dimensions of physical and emotional wellness on an aggregate did not differ significantly in both genders, but knowledge and practices of spiritual wellness in females gave them direction to face episodes of anxiety for which males had to take help from mentors and psychologists (p < 0.034, p < 0.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Spirituality, the key success factor in better wellness management, was found to be greater among female medical students.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Bahria University Medical and Dental College, Karachi. drrehana7@gmail.com
authors.forename: Rehana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rehman
authors.forename: Sadiqa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Syed
authors.forename: Mehwish
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hussain
authors.forename: Saifullah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shaikh
mesh_terms: D004032:Diet; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D010154:Pakistan; D012737:Sex Factors; D029181:Spirituality; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*