Abstract:

Life satisfaction can be defied as the degree of a person achieving his objectives. Self-care agency instead can be defi ned as the individual’s ability to perform self-care activities in order to protect himself and his health and well-being. This study determines the level of life satisfaction and self-care agency of the medical faculty students at Pamukkale Pamukkale University and examines the infl uencing factors. Materials and Methods: Data were collected during October 11-22, 2010 after obtaining the necessary permits. The study population consisted of all students of Pamukkale University, Faculty of Medicine, classes 1 to 6. The sample selection was not performed, all students were planned to take the survey. Three hundred ten (70). 0%) students who provided a verbal consent participated in this study. The questionnaire for data collection consisted of three parts. The fi rst part included questions on socio-demographic characteristics. The Family Welfare Scale was used to determine the socioeconomic level of the participants. The second and third parts included the Life Satisfaction and Self Care Agency questionnaires, respectively. Results: The majority of respondents (55.8%) were female, average and standard deviation (sd) of participants' age was 20.7 (1.8). The mean(sd) of Life Satisfaction (LS) score 24.5(6.5), while the highest and lowest values were 5 and 35. The mean(sd) of self-care agency (SCA) score was 95.8 (18.7), while the highest and lowest values were 38 and 140. There was a statistically significant cant correlation between LS and SCA scores (r=0.40, p<0.001). After removing the confounding effects of other factors, a multivariate linear regression model showed that LS scores increased by levels of maternal education (p=0.01), socioeconomic levels (p=0.02) and decreased by the schooling years of medical students (p=0.04). Similarly, SCA scores were high in those who participate in social activities (p=0.01), those with higher socioeconomic level (p=0.02), who were non-smokers (p=0.01) and who had at least one hobby (p=0). by 03). Conclusion: Due to close relations to LS and SCA scores we may suggest a) making of appropriate environment and infrastructure in the University and encouraging students to participate in social and sports events, b) increasing the war on smoking by the university management by observing a careful implementation of the ban on smoking at regular intervals, making available anti-tobacco education to all students, and encouraging smokers to quit, c) raising the level of education in the society.

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