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Abstract
Background: Happiness is among fundamental
concepts in mental health that influence many
aspects of life. It becomes particularly more
important for people who are working under
continuous stress especially medical students. This
study was conducted to identify different factors and
find out their effectiveness in predicting happiness
scores among medical students of Rawalpindi
Medical University.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted
among students of Rawalpindi Medical University
with ethical approval from institution. Stratified
random sampling was used to select the participants.
Data was collected using two questionnaires. First
was Oxford Happiness Questionnaire and a second
questionnaire included various variables being
tested. SPSS V23 was used to analyse data.
Results: A total of 450 students were enrolled
including 297 females and 153 males. The Mean ±
SD value of happiness of the participants was 4.01 ±
1.12. There was significant relationship between the
happiness scores and physical activity, fulfilling
religious obligations and participation in social
activities while there was no significant relationship
between happiness and gender, frequency of playing
video games and listening to music and Facebook
usage.
Conclusion: The mean value of happiness among
students of RMU coincided with average happiness
scores in general population. Those participants of
study who had increased physical activity by either
doing exercise or going to gymnasium had
significantly higher scores of happiness. Similarly,
individuals who were fulfilling religious obligations
and had increased participation in social activities
also scored significantly higher on happiness scale.
Key Words: Happiness score, Physical activity,
Medical students, Social activities, Religious
obligations.