title: Italian medical students quality of life: years 2005-2015.
abstract: Quality of Life (QoL) is a concept used to indicate the general wellness of persons or societies. University students report a low quality of life and a worse perception of their health status, because of a situation of greater discomfort in which they live during the course of the study, especially in faculties with an important emotional burden, such as medical schools. The aim of the study was to evaluate the perceived health status of first year medical students.
  
  
  
  We conducted a cross sectional study in the time span 2005-2015, administering the questionnaire Short Form 36 (SF-36) to first-year students of the School of Medicine of the University of Siena, Italy. In addition to demographic information such as gender and the age we investigated the region of residence, marital status, employment status, and smoking habits; height and weight were required to calculate the body mass index (BMI) to evaluate a possible physical discomfort connected with the perception of health status. The data from the questionnaires were organized and processed by software Stata® SE, version 12.1.
  
  
  
  1,104 questionnaires were collected. Medical students reported lower SF-36 scores, compared to the Italian population of the same age. Female gender and smoking habits influence negatively the score of several scales. Body Mass Index is positively correlated with the Physical Activity, while Age is negatively correlated with Social Activities.
  
  
  
  The perceived quality of life of the Italian medical students is lower when compared to the general population. This confirms that the condition of student implies additional problems, as other studies reports. It would be better to improve it, developing students' resilience. It would be interesting to extend this research to students of other years, from other faculties and other locations, to gain a broader view about the QoL of the Italian students.
authors.affiliation: Research Professor of Public Health, Department of Molecular and Developmental Medicine, University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Messina
authors.affiliation: MD, Azienda USL Toscana sud est, Siena Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Quercioli
authors.affiliation: MD, Post Graduate School of Public Health, University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Troiano
authors.affiliation: MD, Post Graduate School of Public Health, University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.affiliation: MD, Hospital "Santa Maria alle Scotte", Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Barbini3
authors.affiliation: MD, Post Graduate School of Public Health, University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nisticò
authors.affiliation: Full Professor of Public Health, Department of Molecular and Developmental Medicine, University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nante
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012307:Risk Factors; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Italy; Quality of life; Questionnaire; Students