ABSTRACT
Background: Medical knowledge is growing dramatically. Medical students need to adjust their learning behavior as well as their private life to cope with this transition. Thus, their quality of life may differ from the general population. Objective: To compare quality of life between medical students and general population in the same age groupDesign: Cross-sectional analytical studySetting: Khon Kaen Medical School and a selected urban community in Khon Kaen downtown.Population and Samples: Systematic sampling was performed for both groups, at equal samples of 118 each. Tool: Self-administered questionnaire which compose of demographic data and WHOQOLBREF Thai was employed.Analysis: Mean, SD, median, percent as well as 95% CI, odds ratio, chi-square were employed.Results: Of 236 questionnaires distributed, 199 were returned with response rate of 86.4% for medical students and 82.2% for youth group. Age distribution was similar with the median of 21 and 22. Economic status of the medical students seemed superior to youth group. More than 60% of medical students perceived themselves as good quality of life which was significantly higher than that of the youth (35.1%) (p