Exploration of quality of life indicators
As part of the exploratory purpose of this study, we asked students to indicate their satisfaction with a variety of quality of life indicators: satisfaction with health, sleep, and nutritional intake: presence of financial concerns, satisfaction with living accommodations, opportunities for leisure activities, ability to balance school load with personal life, effectiveness of coping strategies, quality of support from others, and overall quality of life.
The majority of the sample indicated that they were very satisfied or satisfied with their health (75%), very satisfied or satisfied with their living arrangements (78%), and rated their overall quality of life as very good or good (84%). In contrast, there were a number of indicators for which several students struggled. Sleep and nutritional intake were cited by a high number of participants who indicated difficulties in being able to meet their needs. Forty percent of the sample was either very dissatisfied or dissatisfied with their sleep, and 32% of the sample was very dissatisfied and dissatisfied with their nutritional intake. As well, 49% of the sample indicated that they had little or no opportunities for leisure activities. The ability to balance school load with personal life was particularly challenging for 27% of the sample and moderately so for 41%. Financial concerns (inadequate money to meet their needs) were reported by 30% of the sample