ABSTRACT

Most studies and systematic reviews of the psychological health of medical students have investigated the negative aspects of depression and anxiety. Evidence from several studies suggests depressive symptoms are common in medical school students. Moreover, evening chronotype is considered a risk factor for the development of depression. However, surprisingly no study has assessed the possible relationship between chronotypes and happiness. The aims of this study were to: (a) assess happiness and its predictors among Turkish preclinical medical students, (b) identify chronotype preferences, and (c) determine whether these predictors mediate the relationship between chronotype and happiness. Sociodemographic and clinical data collection form, Oxford Happiness Questionnaire short form (OHQ-SF), and Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) were used to collect data. In this cross-sectional study, 564 students in their pre-clinical year properly completed the questionnaires. The mean age was 19.89 ± 1.37 years (range: 17–26 years). The mean total OHQ-SF score was 23.09 ± 4.23. Female students were significantly happier than male students (p =.042). Thirty-eight (6.7%) students were morning type, 376 (66.7%) were intermediate type, and 150 (26.6%) were evening type. The distribution of chronotypes did not differ by gender (p =.085). Evening types showed significantly lower OHQ-SF scores than morning (p <.001) and intermediate types (p <.001). MEQ scores were positively correlated with OHQ-SF scores (Pearson, r =.245, p <.001). Multivariate analyses showed that gender, perceived economic resources, physical activity, depression diagnosed the previous 12 months, stressful life events and chronotypes were predictors of happiness among Turkish preclinical medical students. These six variables explained 15% of the total variance of happiness. In conclusion, this study identified evening-type individuals showed less happiness in comparison to the morning-type and intermediate-type individuals. There was a significant relationship between happiness and chronotype, even when controlling for confounding variables, such as age, gender, and others. This information could have clinical implications and contribute to chronobiological approaches for the protection of psychological health.

摘要

对医学生心理健康的大多数研究和系统评价都调查了抑郁和焦虑的负面影响。几项研究的证据表明，抑郁症状在医学院学生中很常见。此外，晚上表型被认为是抑郁症发展的危险因素。然而，令人惊讶的是，没有研究评估表型和幸福之间的可能关系。这项研究的目的是：（a）在土耳其临床前医学生中评估幸福及其预测因子，（b）识别表型偏好，以及（c）确定这些预测因子是否介导表型与幸福之间的关系。社会人口统计学和临床​​数据收集表，牛津幸福调查表简称（OHQ-SF），和早晚问卷（MEQ）被用来收集数据。在这项横断面研究中，有564名临床前学生正确完成了问卷。平均年龄为19.89±1.37岁（范围：17-26岁）。OHQ-SF总平均得分为23.09±4.23。女学生比男学生快乐​​得多（p = .042）。38名（6.7％）学生为早班，376名（66.7％）为中班，150名（26.6％）为晚班。不同性别的表型分布没有差异（p = .085）。晚上类型的OHQ-SF得分明显低于早晨（p <.001）和中间类型（p <.001）。MEQ得分与OHQ-SF得分呈正相关（Pearson，r = .245，p<.001）。多元分析表明，性别，感知的经济资源，体育活动，抑郁症在过去的12个月中被诊断出，压力性的生活事件和表型是土耳其临床医学生幸福感的预测指标。这六个变量解释了幸福总方差的15％。总而言之，这项研究发现，与早晨和中型相比，晚间型人的幸福感低。即使在控制混杂的变量（例如年龄，性别等）时，幸福感与表型之间也存在显着的关系。该信息可能具有临床意义，并有助于保护生物学的时间生物学方法。