Analyzing the Effectiveness of Wellness Resources Provided for Medical School Students

Background: There exists well-documented evidence demonstrating that physicians and medical school students practicing preventative lifestyles are more likely to promote prevention to their patients, which is especially important given the escalation of chronic conditions in the United States. The arduous nature of medical school challenges the student’s ability to initiate or sustain healthy lifestyle habits even with the various resources available. Several interventions have been created to address medical student wellness; however, there remains a discrepancy in the literature regarding the effectiveness of these resources long-term. Student burnout, which is defined as emotional exhaustion, is still a prevalent issue in the medical profession. Medical schools must emphasize the importance of program evaluations to address the issues that contribute to poor medical student wellbeing.

Goal:To create a simple and inexpensive survey that can track the effectiveness of wellness resources that medical students use over the long-term.

Methods: A survey that could be implemented at a single point in time or a yearly fashion was developed. The survey was created to collect information on wellbeing markers, resources used, and basic demographic information. The wellness questionnaires used were the WHO-5 Wellbeing Index, Modified Maslach Burnout Inventory (M-MBI), International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF), Single Item Sleepy Quality Scale (SQS), and the nutritional questionnaire section from the American Association of Family Medicine’s (AAFP) Lifestyle Assessment Form. The effectiveness of the wellness resources will be assessed in three ways. First, a question will be asked regarding the user’s opinion about the value of the resource to their wellness. Second, the students with poor wellbeing will be identified, and the prevalence of usage of that resource will be documented. Third, the wellbeing markers will be compared to students who use the resource versus students who do not use the resource. Propensity score matching will be used to reduce the confounding variables associated with demographic information and academic factors (average grades, amount of time spent studying in a day, etc.). The data will be collected through Qualtrics and analyzed using IBM SPSS Version 29.0.

The first round of the survey will be distributed to first- and second-year medical students between the dates of February 1st -15th. Subjects will be recruited through verbal announcements at the end of mandatory lectures.

Discussion and Future Implications: Due to the numerous wellness programs at medical schools, it can be difficult to assess their efficacy because of the time and resources needed. The survey design is built to help medical schools track the performance of their wellness resources in a quick and affordable manner. The data from this survey can help guide decisions about how medical schools can improve the quality of their wellness resources. It is important for medical schools to continue to evaluate their wellness initiatives over the long-term so that they can adapt to the evolving needs of their students.