title: Quality of life of Pakistani medical students studying in a private institution.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To find the quality of life of medical students using a World Health Organisation questionnaire.
  
  
  METHODS
  The cross-sectional study was conducted in February 2015 at Shifa College of Medicine, Islamabad, Pakistan, and comprised students studying in an integrated medical education system. The shortened version of World Health Organisation Quality of Life questionnaire comprising 26 items was used. Consecutive non-probability sampling was used to collect data which was analysed using SPSS 21.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of 417 medical students, 185(44.4%) were male and 232(55.6%) were female. Of them, 165(39.6%) were in pre-clinical years, while 252(60.4%) were in clinical years. Overall, 347(83.2%) students rated their quality of life as "good" or "very good". Environmental domain had the highest mean score of 70.43±16.38 while Psychological Health domain had the lowest mean score of 66.48±15.64.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Medical education affects students' health, thus their quality of life varies. Identification of this is very important, since long-term stress can induce some permanent personality changes in individuals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Shifa College of Medicine, Shifa Tameer-e-Milat University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Sajida
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naseem
authors.affiliation: Shifa International Hospital and Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Fizza
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Orooj
authors.affiliation: Shifa International Hospital and Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Haider
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ghazanfar
authors.affiliation: Federal Medical and Dental College, Islamabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghazanfar
mesh_terms: D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D010154:Pakistan; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities
keywords: Education, Medicine, Pakistan, Quality of life.