Abstract
The aim of this 3-month cohort study was to examine the association between low sense of coherence (SOC) and poor subjective well-being of new medical students at a university. Participants were first-year students at Dokkyo Medical University (111 students in 2011, 107 in 2012, and 118 in 2013) who completed self-report questionnaires comprising 29 SOC items and 12 lifestyle items upon entry in April and again in July. Total SOC scores for April (131.8) and July (130.8) were almost unchanged, although meaningfulness and manageability scores decreased significantly and comprehensibility scores increased significantly. Mean scores of total SOC, manageability, and comprehensibility of students whose subjective well-being was good in April but poor in July were significantly lower than those of students whose subjective well-being was good in both months, whereas the mean score of meaningfulness of students with poor subjective well-being in both months was significantly lower than that of students whose subjective well-being was poor in April but good in July.Odds ratios for poor subjective well-being adjusted for age, sex, and year of admission were significantly high for low comprehensibility (4.33: 1.35-13.9) and low manageability (8.51: 1.90-38.1).Thus, our study suggested that the SOC of new medical students can be used to identify those students at risk of poor QOL.
