Assessment of quality of life and associated factors in nursing students

Abstract

Objective: To assess the quality of life of nursing undergraduate students and factors associated with socioeconomic variables and internship field. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in an educational institution located in the northern region of the state of Ceará, Brazil, involving 309 nursing undergraduates from the 1st to the 10th semester. The WHOQOL-bref instrument was used to evaluate the quality of life. Each domain and total score of the instrument were considered as outcome variables. Results: 69.3% of the individuals were women, the mean age of the sample was 28 years, and 67.7% defined their quality of life as “good” or “very good.” Undergraduates who consumed well water and those with lower income had a higher chance of presenting lower scores in the physical domain and environmental domain of quality of life, respectively (p < 0.05), and of having a lower total quality of life score. Conclusion: The students considered their quality of life to be good/very good, and sociodemographic factors influenced the lower quality of life score.