Objectives: Mentoring has been used as a strategy for mental health prevention and the promotion of quality of life in medical students, with mixed results. The aim of this study was to compare the levels of mental health, quality of life, and academic motivation of medical students after implementation of a longitudinal curricular mentoring program relative to those students without mentoring in their curricula.
Method: The results of the mentoring program were assessed by comparing two classes of 2nd-year students of a school of medicine (one that had received mentoring since admission and another which had no exposure to the method during the course). Self-report questionnaires were used to collect data on sociodemographics, quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF), mental health (DASS-21), and academic motivation (Academic Motivation Scale-AMS).
Results: A total of 95 medical students were included: 55 received the mentoring program and 40 did not receive the program. The Multivariate GLM regression model revealed no significant main effect of mentoring on domains of the WHOQOL-BREF (Wilks's Lambda = 0.938, F = 1.427, p < 0.232); the DASS-21 (Wilks's Lambda = 0.051, p < 0.985); or the AMS (Wilks's Lambda = 0.957, F = 0.628, p < 0.708). Likewise, the Univariate GLM regression showed no significant main effect of mentoring on medical students' perceived health (F = 0.585; d.f. = 1; p = 0.446).
Conclusion: Mentoring promoted no significant changes in the students of this Brazilian institution. These results highlight the challenges faced in structuring, maintaining, and assessing an effective mentoring program for students on medicine courses.