Effects of a Student Lifestyle on Health

Effects of a Student Life room on comfortablynessAn investigation into the effects of a disciple life-style on healthResults and talk ab protrudeionThe wondernaires were sent come in to the cultivatechild population in the path described. A total of 240 were distri plainlyed and we get back 120 of these a 50% return locate. Of these 120 (n), 68 (56%) were from virile respondents and 52 (44%) were from feminines this some chew overs the male / female ratio of disciples at the University.We sh either consider to from each angiotensin-converting enzyme and only(a) integrity top dog in turn.Questionnaire IAge. As could easily be predicted, the bulky major(ip)ity of respondents were from the 18-21 yr. maturate ramble 100 (83%) in total, with the remainder scattered over the range 22-32 yrs., again this roughly equalises with the savant long time profile of the University campus.108 (90%) were full clip disciples with however 12 (10%) macrocosm partly t imeWe decided to shed light on a preliminary breakd grant got into sports and non-sports connect p arntages. We felt that this was mitigate for our purposes than specifying each individual course studied, as it lent itself to low-caler analysis. 24 (20%) were on sports related courses and 96 (80%) were non. It would be a callful breakdown of male / female in these 2 groups if you put genius over the instruction.In terms of hours studied, the results were rather impress as 29 (24%) admitted to terminatevas slight than 6 hrs a hebdomad, the biggest age bracket of 50 (41%) admitted to 6-10 hours a week and only one (a female) felt that she was studying much(prenominal)(prenominal) than 21 hours a week. The relevance of this is that, in the context of operation and health, it would be difficult for every of these students to present a convincing credit line that they did non figure beca hold of goods and services they were committing too over practically time to their studies. They cl ahead of time had piling of uncommitted non-study time on their hands. Perhaps a bar chart would be appropriate here.Smoking. Given the data presented earlier our results were not all in all in line with the national middlings. Our cohort had 64 smokers (53%) of which 60% were men. If our cohort had followed the national patterns then we would devour expected 42% of men and 39% of women in this age range to be smokers. The reasons for this ar not clear from our reexamine whizz mathematical explanation whitethorn be the circumstantially steep response to our question well-nigh stress levels ( visualise on)With regard to the chassis of cigargonttes smoked the range was surprisingly narrow with over 75% of smokers admitting to smoke 15 or less per day and only 2 admitted to fastball over 30 a dayThe length of time that each had smoked was less than four years in 75% of smokers. Although we do not concur the data, we should perhaps not be surpris ed at that as we capture already mentioned, the majority (83%) of our group were under the age of 22yrs. You susceptibility standardised to break down the ages of the smokers further to chink if you rat demonstrate that the majority started smoking when they got to university the figures should bear this out. This figure is quite an epochal when we comp atomic number 18 it against the number who protest to be concerned about their seaworthiness (see on) as we take a leak highlighted above that smoking is one of the greatest impediments to widely distri preciselyed good health.Drinking.112 (93%) of our respondents said that they did drink alcoholic drink with only 8 (6%) stating that they were teetotal.Of much great interest was the standard that was drunk. Given that the current recommended periodic breathing in is 21 units for men and 14 units for women, 75 of our respondents admitted to imbibing more than than that (66% of drinkers) with the biggest groups 38 in total, tipsiness in the range of 26-35 units on a weekly basis. It has to be said that it was rather worrying that 15 of our respondents (13% of drinkers) admitted to regularly drinking over 41 units a week and 3 of those were women.7 a+b) When contrasted against the figures for drinking before coming to University, it kitty be seen that at that place is a mark change magnitude in the quantity of alcohol consumed since the conversion to the student modus vivendi. There whitethorn of course be m either factors at work here. Sudden relaxation of parental control, the avail susceptibility of more money, and world sr. whitethorn all play a part. It is besides possible that the influence of peer pressure is a signifi cigarett factor here. It is belike as well as signifi erectt that only two of the group rattling admitted to drinking more than 30 units a week before coming to university which sure enough is in marked contrast to our dressings.the enquiry into unlawful me dicates brought out an elicit response. We had considered the possibility that students may not be entrusting to openly discuss their use of illicit substances and mainly it was for this reason that we elected to make the questionnaire anonymous. We received a definitive dissolver in of all timey case and 42 of out cohort (35%) currently use drugs of some sort time at university. This compares to a much lower figure of 20 (16%) who apply drugs before arriving at university and the student modus vivendi. From this evidence it would appear that the fact that somebody comes to university is associated with a doubling of the incidence of recreational drug use. Again we can only postulate about the reasons for this. In much the same look that in that respect was a marked increase in the use of alcohol after the transition to university life, it is possible that the factors which we fireed may absorb been responsible for this increase may also be the same factors that are relev ant in the increase in drug use.8b) The breakdown of admitted drug use is evoke not only for its description of the actual drugs used but also for the pattern of sex distribution that it reveals. There is clearly multi-drug usage as 42 respondents admitted to apply drugs and thither are 85 different admissions of type. We do not have the figures to tell us if the majority of drug use is single use with a relatively few users ac librateing for the polypharmacy or whether around drug users are using multiple types of drugs. The majority of use is in the category of so-called recreational drugs 71 reports (88% of total drug use) and only 14 reports of cocaine use (12% of total drug use).It sure is a clear trend that the drug use amongst men is greater than that amongst women. Of the admitted drug users (by type) 53 (62% of use) was by men and 27 (38%) was by women, this compares with the preponderance of men in our sample (56%) and women (44%).When these results are compared wi th the responses of drug use precedent to arrival at university, it can be seen that the pattern of drug use is different. Cannabis and Ecstasy form the preponderance of drug use in this age group and the incidence of cocaine use is clearly much less. It would therefore appear that cocaine tends to be used by an older age group and this may or may not be an influence of life at university.It is not the function of this survey to administer on the homely rights and wrongs of drug use. We are trying to define and reap the effects of a student lifestyle on health and there is considerable evidence (see above) that drug use is certainly not contributory to health. Perhaps we should confine ourselves to the comment that there is certainly a globe health issue here.10) The psychological aspects of the student life style also produced some unexpected surprises. With specific regard to anxiety there is an straightaway problem seen in the results. In 10a) the students were asked if th ey felt emphasise while at university. 72 (60%) responded yes but when asked to grade the severity of their stress 109 (90%) indicated that they had see a degree of stress. This may represent a difficulty in perception. slightly commonwealth may be able to relate to the experience of shaver degrees of stress and regard it as normal rather than olfactory property stressed which is a term that they may reserve for higher levels of actual perceive stress. We would have to regard this as a criticism of the actual phraseology of the question, in which 10a) great power have been better phrased as have you ever felt any degree of stress while at university? when, presumably, the two figures would then have matched.It is certainly portentous that the majority of the yes respondents were women. The majority of the studies by dint of on the subject of stress (see above) show that women leave report sapiditying stressed more frequently than their male counterparts. Many reasons an d hypotheses have been groundbreaking for this observation. It may well be that men are physiologically better equipped to deal with stress than women. There does not, however, appear to be any evidence to back up this record. It has been shown that men are less promising to seek help for psychological (and indeed physical) symptoms than women quite often to their own detriment.Any sociologist will tell you that in our current social mood the gender roles of the two sexes are programmed differently during rearing. Boys are expected and encourage to be stoical and brave, hiding their emotions whereas it is generally considered far more bankable for girls to exhibit emotional liability. It is therefore not unexpected to find that at the highest end of the reported stress range. The proportion of women is greater than men. Equally the transposed is also true that men are over represented at the lower-stress and no-stress levels.The pre-university results are not as diverse as th ey appear to be in other(a) areas of enquiry. This should not altogether surprise us as we have to bear in mind the fact that all of the students who have make the transition from instill to university will, almost without exception, have been done the A-level system, which is an inherently stressful experience. It is interesting to beak that the sex variations are almost kindred in this group when compared to the university group. Again this reflects the purposes of other, more general, studies on the subject.12) With regard to the comments made about the discrepancy of the figures in the questions about anxiety (11a and 11b) we can see that there is exactly the same disagreement in the questions about imprint (12a) and 12b). When asked the direct question about whether they had felt depressed while at university 98 (81%) said no, but when asked to grade their degree of effect only 34 (28%) indicated that they had not felt depressed to any degree. This apparent discrepancy can presumably be analysed on the same lines as our suggestions with regard to anxiety. This is given further credence by the observation that in the group who admitted to experiencing first gear, women were represented at nearly double the relative frequence of the men. When we look at the group admitting to severe depression the proportion rises to over three times the relative frequency.When compared to the responses that were reported before coming to university we can see however, that this time (compared to the anxiety situation) there is a marked difference as very many fewer respondents admitted to feelings of depression in their pre-university life. We do know that levels of depression reach a peak in the early twenties ( most markedly in men) and therefore we would expect to find lower levels in immatureer age groups. We also have other environmental factors in play as the majority of pre-university or school age pupils, will normally be living in the comparative secu rity of a family lifestyle with all its attendant support networks hope in full in place. At university however, the situation is generally quite different with young people thrust into a different, and possibly alien environment, with no pre-existent support networks to fall back on for advice. This is clearly a fat breeding ground for re diligent depression and also endogenous depression if there is a predis stead for it.14) This section is even more natural than the preceding two as it deals with the question of self confidence ( you baron like to see if your results show a coefficient of correlation between the people doing sports related courses and high self-confidence rating because the chances are that there will be see on) the self-assessed results in this section show a somewhat predictable Gaussian distribution trim with the highest concentration in the midsection ranges of self confidence and a slight preponderance towards the above total assessment.One incess antly has to approach self-assessments with a fair degree of incredulity but one could reasonably expect a higher than average number of self-confident people at university as they clearly would have to have a fair degree of self-confidence to aim the incumbent exams and to put themselves forward in the first place.One interesting point in the analysis is shown by the fact that there is an increased correlation in a high self confidence rating and the association in a sports-related course. We can only conjecture why this might be but, in order to excel in sports it is usually exclusively counter-productive to be shy and retiring, so perhaps we could postulate a preponderance of certain personality types in a sports-related field.15) there is very short(p) difference in the ratings of self-confidence before and after coming to university. If anything, there is a slight increase in the perceived ratings. This may well correlate with the feelings of independence and the necessit y to be responsible for ones own actions at university. The increase in the ratings may simply reflect the confidence that comes with experience of the independence of the student lifestyle which most of our respondents clearly have had.16) When designing the questionnaire we considered the problems that may arise with questions of a personal or cozy nature. We are therefore very heartened by the fact that the vast majority of respondents found that they could give us answers in this section with cxv (95%) responding positively. Sadly, the results do tend to bolster the tabloid editors portrayal of promiscuity which we referred to in the section on cozyly ancestral diseases of our respondents, only 4 (3%) admitted to being a virgin (or celibate). The biggest group 25 (21%) had only one first mate since being at university, but it was something of a surprise to see that the neighboring biggest group of 20 (17%) had five partners since arriving at university.10 of our sample (12 %) admitted to having 10 or more partners while being at university. We do not presume to make any moral judgements on this set of results but it would be fair to say that to have 10 or more different sexual partners at heart a three year firearm at university (and some may have had ten partners in less than that time) does put the respondents in a high risk group for sexual health problems (see conclusions)With the single exception of the lowest degrees of promiscuity (Groups admitting to one or no partners at all), men outnumbered women in all the groups. It is hard to fully explain this anomaly. A logical evaluation would suggest that there are three possibilities, either it is an unexpected statistical homosexualism, it reflects the fact that normal sexual exercise is carried out by most men but a few very promiscuous women or that there is an unexpectedly high derive of male homosexual activity going on within the university. The author could not possibly comment on which eventuality is the most likely.17) When compared to the figures obtained for sexual activity before coming to university we can see that there is a marked difference. The degree of promiscuity is much lower pre-university. This may well be a objurgation of the age and circumstance of the pre-university respondents, quite apart from the independence factor that becomes more apparent after arriving at university. We can also see that the number of celibates pre-university is also much higher. This again, is belike a reflection of the perception of independence found at university.18) In continuation of the issues discussed in section 16, the issues of sexual health are tackled here. The question is purposely blunt Have you ever had a sexually patrimonial disease? In our sample 6 (5% of sexually progressive respondents) had admitted to having one. This may very well not be accurate, as any experienced health professional will tell you that there are a lot a sexually transmitted di seases that are well or may clear up spontaneously.Male monillia is often both nugatory and self-curing and may only show as a transient blotchy rash of 24-36 hours duration. Male and female chlamydia may be completely asymptomatic in both sexes and the sufferers may truthfully respond that they do not think that they have a sexually transmitted disease. The fact of the exit is that both monilliasis in the female and Chlamydia in both sexes, can have serious repercussions with regard to fertility in the future. As we have flagged up in our earlier discussions, high levels of promiscuity are a authorization problem for the overall sexual health of the student body.Questionnaire IIBMI was worked out from the statistics of height and weight supplied by each respondent.The first inference of note is that there is a predictable Gaussian curve for both male and female distributions of BMI with the mean for males (predictably) coming to the right of the female peak ( a graph showing t he two distributions would be helpful here) although the male curve actually has two maxima, this is almost certainly a statistical quirk due to the relatively small number of the sample. There are only three respondents that fall into the clinically obese range (25 and over) and only two both female who would be considered clinically underweight with a BMI of 15 (WHO definitions). This distribution is approximately the distribution that one would expect from the population as a whole in this age range.The first question asks respondents to rate their degree of physical activity. This set of answers should be analysed in conjunction with the responses to questions 3a-6 and the cognition that 24 (20%) are on sports related courses and we would therefore expect them to be physically active in the pursuance of their course in any event.As we can see 32 (26%) take less object lesson than the Government recommended target of 30 mins. five times a week and a further 49 (40%) just strad dling the target level.If we arbitrarily equate very physically active with doing in excess of 80 transactions of arrange a day, fairly physically active with doing more than 40 mins a day, together with not very physically active doing more than 20 minutes a day then we can see a marked discrepancy straight away.Those who professed to be very physically active were 22 (18%) but this compares with 13 (10%) who actually do more than 80 mins. exercise a day.In the fairly physically active group there were 58 respondents (48%) but this corresponds to 39 (32%) who actually take more than 40 minutes of exercise a day.For those 25 (20%) who profess to be not very physically active they correlate with 49 (40%) who straddle the Government guidelines by taking between 21-40 minutes exercise a day.The group with the lowest professed activity 15 (12%) correlate with the 32 (26%) who do virtually no physical activity at all. straight one can see that there is a discrepancy here. Those who fe el that they take a lot of activity tend to overestimate the amount of exercise that they actually do, equally there are a second base group who, say that they are not very active when the figures suggest that the actually-inactive group is much bigger than the professed-inactive group.Professed ActualActivity (n) Activity (n) very active 22 13Fairly active 58 39Not very active 25 49Inactive 15 32All in all it would appear that the respondents have an ability to feel that they are actually doing more exercise than they actually are doing. Equally you could argue that we are making the criteria too strict and that we are being over-ambitious in our expectations of what amount of exercise people of this age should be doing. Perhaps the best independent arbiter should be the Governments own documents and consultation papers quoted elsewhere in this piece (Game formulate and At to the lowest degree five a week). It can be seen that approximately 50% of our respondents do not meet the se criteria.3b 4a 4b You have given me no information here and I have no real predilection of what the results might actually show. I would suggest that you base your analysis along the lines of my previous answer (which may have to be modified in the light of whatever your figures show)2a+b) The weight of our respondents seems to have remained remarkably steady with 103 (85%) be effectively unchanged. We note that in the case of the 17 (14%) where the weight has changed we did not ask them to specify whether this was up or down. If this is analysed in conjunction with 2b) where 2 respondents indicated that this was an intentional change and 15 said that it was unintentional, the normal inference would be that people who have elected to change their weight intentionally might normally have been expected to loose weight however, in this special cohort with a strong sporting interest, it is possible that this group may have been trying to put weight on. And equally the talk may al so be true, we do not have enough information to make this judgement.5) when asked if they thought that they got enough exercise to keep them brawny 62 (51%) of our respondents thought that they did. Interestingly 10 (12%) didnt know. This is presumably a reflection of public education issues although you could take the opposing forecast that the message has got through to the other 88% who felt that they did know.88 (73%) of our respondents felt that they wanted to increase the amount of exercise that they did. We are not in a position to say whether these are the ones who felt that they did not do enough exercise to start with or whether they are the ones who already exercise and feel that they acquire to do more. Presumably, for those on a sports related course there is always the incentive to try to make yourself even fitter.44(36%) of our sample visited the gym on a regular basis. We can reasonably assume that at least 24 of these will be on the sports related courses as one can assume that they would be visiting the gym regularly as part of their course so at least another(prenominal) 20 were actively trying to get fitter. We can see that there is a preponderance of males in this group (33m to 12f).With regard to this question you might like to see if the 32 negative respondents correlate highly with the active or non active groups. You could then draw appropriate conclusions here. For example if they were the predominantly the active group then you might terminate that they didnt feel the hire for inactive activities or conversely, if they were the inactive group it may be that their sedentary activities precluded them from activity.11-14 The diet related questions are perhaps better considered as one entity. The most interesting comparisons come from the pre-university and at university comparisons as one can see that there is a marked change in the eat activity of our respondents It is something of a surprise that 81 (67%) of our respondents us ed a fast-food sack less than twice a week. The general perception of the student lifestyle is frequent use of such facilities. This clearly is not borne out by our survey.A worryingly large number of students eat less than the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables with 83 (69%) and 86 (71%) respectively taking less than the WHO recommended minimum. This contrasts dramatically with the results in the pre-university question where it can be seen that the amount of fruit and vegetables eaten (presumably in general under parental influence) is much higher. In terms of health, this is an important finding as fruit and vegetables are a major source of roughage, vitamins and anti-oxidants (and of course many other essential nutrients) that are essential for health in general. A reduction in intake therefore jeopardises the overall rubicund diet.13. It is an interesting comment that 36 (30%) of our respondents said that they were concerned about their diet. One would have thought t hat with the independence of student life, if they were concerned that they now actually had the means to do something about it. Clearly this is a sweeping narrative that does not take into account a mass of other axiomatic factors such as the finances involved in buying comparatively expensive items such as fruit.Conclusions There are many conclusions that one can draw from the figures presented above. Top of our list should be a shape of the shortcomings of the survey which obviously will have a bearing on the conclusions that we feel able to draw from our figures. It is acknowledged that the survey is comparatively small. Although we can hope that it may be representative of the student body, it small sizing precludes rigorous statistical analysis. It is certainly possible to detect trends within our survey and many of these have been commented upon as we have looked at the figures.The mechanism of using the same sample of students as their own controls by asking their activit y before coming to university, is a useful tool to gain a degree of statistical validity, and certainly has helped us to answer the original question of the effects of a student lifestyle on health.To specifically answer that question, we can point to a number of areas where there appears to have been marked changes in behaviour patterns pre- and post-university. Smoking, drinking, diet and sexual behaviour have all changed dramatically and to a lesser extent, drug taking patterns and depression levels have also changed. To some extent, a cynic might observe that this equates with the beat aspects of the typical tabloid editors portrayal of the typical student.The reality is, of course, far more complex than that We have already alluded to the major sociological changes that occur when the typical student leaves school and arrives at university. The red ink from the comparatively structured and dependent world of home life and school into the comparatively independent and less str uctured world of the university allows a jerky explosion of freedom in many cases where new experiences and activities can be tried, exploited and (perhaps) enjoyed.Can we draw any conclusions as to whether the typical university student is more or less healthy than their pre-university counterpart? Clearly we have delineated some important pointers to this question. In terms of diet (perhaps one of the most important long-term factors in deciding the criteria of health) there is belittled doubt that our typical student has a worse diet at university than they did before coming to university. We can clearly see the reduction in fruit and vegetable intake although it is gratifying to see that the expected transition to fast-food existence is not a major factor in most cases.The amount of exercise appears to have increased, although we have to accept that a disproportionate number in our sample have a sporting interest, so clearly that will skew the figures to a degree. As we have d iscussed earlier, there is a basic amount of exercise that has been shown to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarction and stroke, obesity and Type II diabetes. Our typical student just qualifies for the basic minimum target set by the Government, but the range is great. As we have seen, exercise varies from virtually minimal to awful amounts on a regular basis. We can probably just about conclude that university has a positive effect on health as far as exercise levels are concerned.Drug taking is another area where the student lifestyle has a bearing on health. less(prenominal) than a third of our respondents have used illicit drugs, so they clearly are not the majority, but this group nonetheless represents a significant group within the whole.It is a matter of intense current vie as to the effect that drugs have on the actual health of a person and therefore we cannot presume to take a firm view when there is still such controversy raging. We can sa y that there is probably a general consensus that there is evidence that some illicit drugs do appear to have long term implications for health and on that basis, we can point to a negative effect of the student lifestyle on health.An area that we can point to that has far more trim implications for health is the explosion of sexual activity that appears to equate with the student lifestyle. We have already passed comment on the degree of promiscuity that our survey has revealed. sexual morality or monogamy is clearly the best way of avoiding the risks of sexually transmitted diseases. We have commented on the number of respondents who have already known that they have had a sexually transmitted disease, but perhaps our concern should be for those who have contracted asymptomatic disease and are therefore, unknowingly evanescent it on to other contacts. Again, this is an apparent negative effect of the student lifestyle on health.RecommendationsIt is difficult to know how to stru cture this section as, on the one hand, we have clearly identified areas where the student lifestyle could be changed to break the overall health of the individual, but a much deeper and possibly more significant question remains should we seek to change it?There are many significant arguments here. One is the basic freedom of choice argument. slightly may say that it is appropriate to give people information on matters such as health but it is ultimately up to them as to whether they actually take or implement that advice.Equally there is the converse argument that points to the drain on the public purse of avoidable ill-health. Do people have a duty to society to keep themselves as healthy as they practically can? Should they avoid obvious factors that will cause ill-health in later life? If we follow this argument through to its logical conclusion then we would insist that everybody had a uniform healthy diet, did not smoke or drink to excess, took daily exercise and remained monogamous for their lifetime.A more balanced approach may be to conclude that, in general terms, people learn by their mistakes. Is has been said that the student lifestyle is not only about getting and education it is about getting an Education. Most students will utilise their time at university to look for and perhaps formulate their ideas and personal guidelines for their future life. Perhaps we should take a pragmatic view and observe that, although we have been able to point out some short term negative aspects of the student life style on health, perhaps it is a necessary phase of experimentation which is part of the evolution to a healthier lifestyle as an adult.PDG 25.3.05Word count 5,572