Relationship between quality of life, personality disorders, and mental disorders with individual characteristics of medical/dental residents, and postgraduates

Background: Medical assistants in particular are at a high risk of acquiring mental illnesses as postgraduate students. The purpose of this research was to characterize postgraduate students' quality of life and the prevalence of psychiatric and personality disorders. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on ۴۹۹ postgraduate students in ۲۰۱۹. Participants completed four questionnaires including demographic information questionnaire, the ۳۶-item short-form ۳۶-t-quality questionnaire (SF-۳۶), the Millon ۳ multi-axis clinical test (MCMI-III), the ۵۳-item short-form short-term psychological symptoms questionnaire (BSI-۵۳). One-way analysis of variance and statistical analysis was performed in SPSS software and causal structural model was performed in PLS software. Results: The quality of life of students was moderate. In physical subcomponents, women's quality of life scores was higher than men, and conversely, in terms of psychological subcomponents, men's quality of life scores was higher than women. The causal structural model showed that income was a positive predictor of quality of life (B=۰۳۱۳, p<۰.۰۰۱), but female gender (B=-۰.۵۰۳, p<۰.۰۰۱) and age (B=-۰.۱۰۱, p<۰.۰۰۱) were negative predictors. About ۳۰% of postgraduate students/residents suffer from psychological symptoms, and about ۱۴% have overt mental disorders or personality disorders. Conclusion: Gender, age, residency year, area of study, and income are individual traits of postgraduate students and residents that have a significant impact on quality of life, psychological symptoms, mental disorders, and personality disorders. The severity of mental symptoms and mental/personality illnesses is also influenced by quality of life.

Keywords:

Assistant , Postgraduate , Quality of Life , Mental Disorder , Disorder.