Quality of life of master’s and doctoral students in health

Abstract

Objectives: to assess the quality of life of master’s and doctoral students in health. Methods: this is a cross-sectional study carried out with 503 master’s and doctoral students from the Brazilian Center-West, using the WHOQOL-BREF to analyze their quality of life. Analysis included Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, confirmatory factor analysis and bivariate and multivariate analyzes. Results: older age and having a child were associated with higher average quality of life scores, while diagnosis of anxiety/depression, difficulty in managing academic and personal activities and thinking about dropping out of course were associated with lower average scores in quality of life domains (p <0.05). Conclusions: master’s and doctoral students have reduced quality of life during the entire training period, mainly in psychological and physical health. The management of academic activities and dropping out of course are the main variables associated with decreased students’ quality of life.