Psychological well-being led, but physical health lagged among Kathmandu undergraduates
A cross-sectional survey of undergraduate students in Kathmandu found a clear split across quality of life domains: psychological health scored highest, while physical health trailed behind. Among 370 students from health science and non-health science programs, the mean age was 21.7 years, and the sample was slightly majority female, urban, and enrolled in non-health science faculties. The pattern is clinically familiar. Young adults often function under sustained academic pressure while sitting for long hours, sleeping irregularly, and postponing exercise, and those habits show up first in perceived physical well-being before they are reflected in grades or attendance.
The study used the 24-item WHO Quality of Life Brief Version and linked those scores to sociodemographic and behavioral factors through multivariable linear regression. Psychological health had the highest mean score at 12.79 ± 2.46, while physical health had the lowest at 12.49 ± 3.31. Those averages do not describe severe impairment, but they do suggest that students were not experiencing uniformly robust health. Physical fatigue, sleep disruption, sedentary routines, and intermittent illness can suppress how young adults rate bodily functioning even when they remain academically engaged.
Faculty, illness perception, and exercise shaped specific QoL domains
A few associations stood out with practical clarity. Students in the faculty of education had lower physical health scores, with a beta coefficient of -0.71 and a 95% confidence interval from -1.39 to -0.03. Self-perceived illness status also tracked with poorer physical health, with a beta of -0.97 and a 95% confidence interval from -1.88 to -0.06. Those findings point to a simple bedside truth: when students believe they are unwell, or when their academic environment carries particular strain, physical quality of life declines even in a population that is young enough to be expected to cope well.
Exercise habits were associated with psychological health, with a beta of -0.53 and a 95% confidence interval from -1.04 to -0.02. The direction of the coefficient reflects the way the variable was modeled, but the signal remains important: movement behaviors were linked to how students rated their mental and emotional functioning. Regular exercise can influence sleep, stress reactivity, mood stability, and perceived control over daily life. In a student population, those effects may matter more than formal counseling access because they are immediate, repeatable, and embedded in routine.
Monthly family income and education faculty were associated with the environmental domain of quality of life. Monthly family income had a beta of -0.77 with a 95% confidence interval from -1.51 to -0.03, and education faculty had a beta of -0.79 with a 95% confidence interval from -1.47 to -0.11. Environmental quality of life captures more than a classroom experience. It reflects housing, safety, transport, access to services, finances, and the surrounding conditions that allow students to study without chronic friction. Lower scores in that domain often mean that stress is not only academic; it is logistical and economic as well.
One result deserves emphasis: the strongest associations were not random fragments of student experience. They clustered around physical condition, exercise, finances, and academic context, which suggests that perceived well-being in this cohort was being shaped by everyday structure rather than by a single isolated stressor.
Why these scores matter in a young adult population
Quality of life in university students is not a soft endpoint. Poor physical and environmental scores can presage lower concentration, sleep disruption, reduced productivity, and greater vulnerability to anxiety and depression. Psychological health may score highest in a group of otherwise functioning students, but that does not mean the cohort is thriving. It may instead mean that mental resilience is being maintained at the same time that the body absorbs the strain of long study hours, limited exercise, and uneven living conditions.
The data also suggest that students in health science programs are not necessarily protected from diminished well-being. The recommendation to improve social interaction, particularly for health-science students, fits the broader pattern. Training in health professions often brings competitive coursework, clinical expectations, and time pressure, all of which can erode opportunities for peer connection. Social interaction can buffer stress physiology, improve perceived support, and reduce the sense of isolation that often accompanies dense professional training.
What the Kathmandu cohort adds to student health planning
Because the survey was web-based and cross-sectional, it cannot establish causation. Still, the associations are strong enough to inform campus health planning. Universities that want better student outcomes should not focus only on academic tutoring. Physical activity opportunities, accessible health services, sleep-friendly schedules, and spaces for peer support may have a more direct effect on day-to-day quality of life than a narrow focus on examinations alone.
The study population was also broad enough to remind educators that QoL is shaped by faculty context. Students do not experience university in the same way across disciplines. A classroom schedule, financial burden, and self-rated illness can intersect in ways that lower physical and environmental well-being long before a student seeks formal help. In that sense, the WHOQOL results function as a map of where strain accumulates first.
For health-policy planners in Nepal, the findings point toward a simple target: improve the conditions that make students feel physically capable, socially connected, and financially less constrained. The data offer no evidence that one intervention will solve the problem. They do show where pressure is already visible, and the lowest scores in physical health suggest that student wellness programs should start with the body as much as the mind.