Effects of life skills education via WeChat among medical students

Objective To understand the life skills level and population difference of medical students,explore the effect of life skills education via WeChat platform and identify its influencing factors.Methods Convenient sampling method was used to recruit volunteers from 4 medical colleges in Heilongjiang Province.According to the quasi-experimental design,self-designed intervention materials were pushed via WeChat platform from October 13th to December 5th,2016.Exante and expost equestionnaires,including Self-rating Depression Scale and self-designed Life Skills Scale were sent to all subjects subscribing to the platform,totally 914 questionnaires who completed both questionnaires were collected at baseline and final,respectively.Results The average score of Life Skills Scale at baseline was (77.78± 11.72) points,whereas the mean final score was (77.45± 12.57) points.After the intervention,students with higher academic performance,higher economic level and lower baseline depression level had higher scores (P<0.05).After adjusting for other factors,the total score was increased by (1.70 ± 0.93) points after intervention,and female students,students at moderate or above the economic level,and depressive students at baseline had more improvement (P<0.05).Conclusion The education of life skills via WeChat platform,influenced by many factors,is effective.With great potential for improvement,health intervention based on new media should be promoted and combined with the school's health education in the future.