Quality of life among pharmacy students at King Khalid University after the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study

Due to the pandemic's increased workload for students, they described feeling lonely, uneasy, and unhappy as a result of their limited social lives during the pandemic. There has been little research that examines the role of resilience concerning the impact of COVID-19 on the quality of life of pharmacy students. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the level of social isolation, loneliness, and quality of life among pharmacy students at King Khalid University after the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used a cross-sectional design, questionnaire-based, that involved pharmacy students, all batches from the third level to the tenth level, at the College of Pharmacy, King Khalid University. The questionnaire consisted of three parts including socio-demographic data, level of loneliness and social isolation using the UCLA Loneliness Scale Version 3, and quality of life (QoL) after the COVID-19 pandemic using the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF). 172 pharmacy students were included in the study, of which 101 (58.7%) were females. The mean age of the participants was 22.1 +/- 4.4 years, and 166 (96.5%) were single. A total of 104 (60.5%) students had a moderately high degree of social isolation and loneliness feeling after the COVID-19 pandemic. The highest QoL score was for psychological health (65.6 +/- 19.5% out of 100%). Moderately high/high levels of feelings of loneliness and social isolation after the COVID-19 pandemic were reported among 63.4% of the students and low/moderate levels were reported by 36.6% of the students. The results also showed that the female gender is more vulnerable to higher feelings of loneliness. The COVID-19 pandemic affected the students' feelings of loneliness and quality of life at the colleague of pharmacy at King Khalid University. In addition, living in the family home was found to be protective against feeling of loneliness when compared to living in rental premises. Further, loneliness should be closely monitored with potential risks, protective factors, and health outcomes.