Health related Quality of Life and its Association with Academic Performance: A Study Among University Going Adolescents

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQL) of university students and investigate its relationship to their academic performance. A society's ability to prosper is hampered by the lethargy of its youth. The physical and mental health of young people are crucial for their academic performance and overall achievement. Resultantly, their achievements determine their society's progress. Consequently, academic experts, researchers, and policymakers must address the emerging challenges faced by university students to develop more effective intervention strategies. The study employed a random sampling technique to select participants from a randomly chosen university. The widely used SF-36 questionnaire, supplemented with an additional question, was administered to assess HRQL and academic performance. The findings revealed that the majority of students in the selected university demonstrated high overall HRQL. Overall, students reported favorable physical and mental health, with physical health scores slightly higher than mental health scores. When examining the eight specific HRQL domains, respondents scored highly in four domains: emotional well-being, vitality, pain, and general health. However, scores in the remaining four domains were lower. Notably, statistical analysis did not reveal any significant association between academic performance and HRQL. There is a need for further investigations with the use of diverse methodological approaches in varying cultural, spatial and temporal dimensions for further and clearer explanation of the relationship between HRQL and academic performance.