Stress and Quality of Life Among University Students: A Systematic Literature Review

TLDR

Excessive, continuous stress can trigger diseases and negatively impact quality of life. The study seeks to examine the association between stress levels and quality of life among university students and identify influencing variables. A systematic review of the past five years of literature was performed using Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, PubMed, and BVS with the terms “quality of life,” “stress,” and “students” combined by AND. Only 13 of 142 screened studies met inclusion criteria, revealing a consistent negative association between stress and quality of life, with insomnia and burnout further contributing to deterioration of physical and mental health.

Abstract

Excessive and continuous stress has effects that go beyond mere health commitment, by triggering various diseases, and it is well stablish that this stress-related somatic events can affect the quality of life. Based on the exposed, the following questions were raised: There is association between quality of life and stress level in university students? What are the potential variables that influences this association? Therefore, this research aimed to analyze recent scientific productions about stress and quality of life in university students. A systematic review was conducted on the recent scientific production (i.e., published papers along the last five (5) years) in Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, PubMed and Virtual Health Library (BVS). For this it was used the following search terms: "quality of life", restricted to the title, "Stress" and "students" in the title, abstract or keywords, all entered in a single search and connected by the Boolean operator "AND". This study identified 142 articles in the scientific literature, but only 13 articles were classified as eligible according to the previously established criteria, highlighting the lack of studies that address the theme under investigation. Among these, quality of life was frequently negatively associated to stress and factors as insomnia and burnout were also associated with its deterioration. This systematic review highlights the negative association between stress and QoL in university students, through the deterioration of various aspects related to physical and mental health.