Attitude of Students Resident in Dormitory on the Importance and Role of Environmental Factors on Physical, Psychological and Educational Status

Dormitories are public spaces. A good dormitory condition has profound influence to improve the learning process of the students. The purpose of this study has been to identify the attitude of the students in the dormitories of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences about the environmental condition of their places and its importance on their physical, psychological and educational status. This cross - sectional study was performed by using a questionnaire designed according to environmental standards issued by Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran. At first the validity and reliability of questionnaire were checked. The subjects were the students who live in the dormitory of Isfahan University and were selected through simple random sampling method. Data were analyzed using the spss 16 package program. Descriptive and inferential statistics with one way ANOVA were used for data analysis. Mean age of the students was 25.34±6.3 years. According to the factors which were important in viewpoints of the students: mean score for the security of dormitory was 4.62 and the average number of persons in a room was 4.58 out of 5. General cleaning of dormitory with mean score of 4.56 mentioned as the most important physical environment factor. Sixty percent of the students believed that environment of dormitory improves their mental health and 65.1 percent believed that this condition can improve their academic achievements. Considering the impact of environmental factors on physical health, psychological and academic status of students, proper planning for improvement of environmental factors and making the dormitories safe, is necessary for educational and health status of the students.