Quality of life of medical students in Brazil. A comparative study

VERAS survey multicenter project, carried out in 2011-2012, evaluated the quality of life (QoL) of students from 22 Brazilian medical schools.

To evaluate QoL of undergraduate medical students, taking Veras-q national data as comparison.

We evaluated the QoL of 197 medical students in a Brazilian private medical school at Salvador, Bahia, Brazil in 2014. Students in the first two years were grouped in Phase I; those in years three and four were grouped in Phase II. Those in the internship (fifth and sixth years) were grouped in Phase III.

Students from Phase I group had better QoL averages than those from Phase II. Phase I students presented significantly (p < 0.05) better scores in the Psychological and Use of Time domains. Compared to Phase II students, those in Phase III obtained better scores in the Physical and Environmental domains. Female students had significantly lower (p < 0.01) scores than male students in Physical, Psychological and Use of Time domains. Compared to the national sample survey, these students had higher (p < 0.01) scores in all domains, except for the Physical domain in Phase II (p < 0.4352).

These students had a better quality of life than those surveyed in the national Veras-q study. Female students had lower scores. Adjusted schedules and lower work overload, as consequences of effective interdisciplinarity in curricular components, may have contributed to higher students' QoL.