Association Between Sleep Quality and Quality of Life Among Medical Students in Chiang Mai University

Objective: To explore and compare the sleep quality between pre-clinical and clinical medical students. The present study also assessed the influence of sleep quality on the quality of life in four domains, physical, psychological, social relationships, and environment. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 261 second-year students and 241 fourth-year students from the Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University as the representatives of preclinical and clinical medical students. Participants completed questionnaires consisting of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) Thai version and WHOQOL-BREF-THAI to assess sleep quality and quality of life. The sleep quality was examined by chi-square test for the comparison between the two groups. Linear regression was used to evaluate the overall influence of sleep quality on each domain of the quality of life after adjusting for other covariates. Results: Two hundred sixty-one participants or 46.7% had poor sleep quality with a PSQI of 6.5 or more. The sleep quality compared between the academic years had significantly worse results (p<0.001) in the preclinical students. Sleep latency and sleep disturbance were the two components of sleep quality that were statistically poorer in the preclinical students (p<0.001). Poor sleep was significantly associated with a poor quality of life in all domains (p<0.001). Each score increased in the global PSQI score, 2.924 score of total WHOQOL-BREF-THAI would be diminished, resulting in an impaired quality of life (p<0.001). Conclusion: The prevalence of poor sleep quality was significantly higher in the preclinical year. As poorer sleep is statistically associated with the poorer quality of life, the curriculum and schedule should give consideration and provision for good sleep quality, especially in preclinical students for the improvement of medical student’s well-being. Keywords: Sleep quality; Quality of life; Medical students