Health-related quality of life and its associated factors: results of a multi-center cross-sectional study among university students

Abstract Background The decline of health among university students represents an important and growing public health concern. Health problems and unhealthy lifestyle habits are common among many students, but factors influencing students’ health are not fully understood. Methods Italian university students from different study programs and curriculum years were asked to fill out a self-administered questionnaire, collecting data about age, gender, curriculum year, study program and health-related quality of life (QOL). Two latent factors were extracted: physical component summary score and mental component summary score. T-test, one-way ANOVA, multivariate and age and sex-stratified analys…