Quality of Life Among Malaysian University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Quality of life reflects the health of individuals, physically and mentally. The aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of life among university students. A total sample of N=377 full-time students from various faculties of a single university were recruited following a cross-sectional study design. The World Health Organization QOL-BREF questionnaire was administered to measure the quality of life in four domains: physical quality, psychological quality, social relationship quality and environment quality. The total quality of life score obtained was 64.33 ± 8.02, which is in the fair category. For demographic comparisons, all domains were similar in distribution, except for age groups in the psychological health domain and sports involvement in the physical health domain. Older students reported a significantly higher mean scores for psychological health compared to the younger age group, while student-athletes scored higher in physical health than the non-athletes. Environment was scored lowest at (13.25 ± 1.78), while social relation was rated highest at (15.10 ± 3.07) among the participants. The overall quality of life and general health, and physical domains exhibited significant positive relationships, but some nonsignificant relationships were observed among student-athletes. Understanding the quality of life among university students would provide a beneficial information on their well-being. This study should become a benchmark to conduct other studies on similar topic especially among young adults. University counsellors and student’s affair departments should acknowledge this study as a reference for organizing students development programs and planning for intervention in improving students’ productivity if needed.