Title: Health and Institutional Change 5 th Nordic Health Promotion Research Conference Lifestyleoriented i
1Health and Institutional Change5 th Nordic
Health Promotion Research ConferenceLifestyle-ori
ented interventions IIMental Health of Students
in EuropeA comparison of university freshmen in
Turkey, Denmark and Germany
Meier S1, Stock C2, Mikolajczyk R1, Naydenova V1,
Bilir N3, Krämer A1 1 University of Bielefeld,
School of Public Health, Germany 2 University of
Southern Denmark, Unit for Health Promotion
Research, Denmark 3 Hacettepe University, School
of Public Health, Turkey
2Outline
- Background
- Questions
- Methods
- Description of the samples
- Data
- attitude towards health
- health policy statements toward smoking and
alcohol - health behaviour smoking, alcohol dependency
- complaints
- stress
- Results and Conclusions
sabine.meier_at_uni-bielefeld.de
3Background
- Universities as educational settings should play
a leading role in creating supportive
environments for health. - A detailed knowledge of the health and the health
behavior of students and its determinants is
necessary for developing interventions at
universities.
sabine.meier_at_uni-bielefeld.de
4Questions
- Are there differences in the
- attitudes towards health and aspects of the
health promoting setting university (smoking and
alkohol) - risky health behaviours like smoking and alcohol
dependency? - health status such as psychosomatic complaints
and perceived stress - between university students from different
countries?
sabine.meier_at_uni-bielefeld.de
5Methods
- Cross-sectional study
- Three different universities in Turkey, Denmark
and Germany - N2,311
- Students in the first academic year
- Standardized questionnaire
- Data collection during lecture
sabine.meier_at_uni-bielefeld.de
6Description of the samples
sabine.meier_at_uni-bielefeld.de
7To what extend do you take care of your health?
(to some extend or very much)
8Daily and occasional smokers
9At risk for alcohol dependency (CAGEgt1)
10Do you agree with the following statements (I
partly agree or I fully agree)
I agree with a smoke-free university building
Alcohol should not be sold at the university
11Mean Perceived Stress Score (PSS, Range 0-4)
Differences between countries ANOVA p lt 0.001
12Psychosomatic Complaints I (more often or very
often during the last 12 months)
Nervousness
Headache
13Psychosomatic Complaints II (more often or very
often during the last 12 month)
Sleeping Disorders
Depressive Mood
14Results
- Country Aspects
- Danish students care a lot about their health and
report the lowest rates of stress and
complaints. They show lower interest in the
health promoting setting university. - Turkish students smoke and drink less then
students from Denmark or Germany and show
higher interest in the health promoting setting
university. They show a lower interest in
their personal health and report more stress and
complaints. - German students show the highest rates of
smoking and drinking. - Gender Aspect
- There were striking gender differences with
women reporting overall better health
behavior, a higher interest in the health
promoting setting and more perceived stress
and more psychosomatic complaints.
sabine.meier_at_uni-bielefeld.de
15Conclusions
- Appraisal of the results
- The results correspondent to findings of earlier
investigations - The spanisch students
reported the same high rates of complaints as
the turkish students did. - In comparision to other countrys the danish
population is healthier and reports a higher
quality of life. - In comparison to the population of the same age
in the analysed countrys the intervieweed
students smoke less, except the turkish women. - Questions to ask
- Does more reported stress and complaints mean
that students (e.g. turkish - students, female students) are more likely to
be ill or does it give a hint on - more sensibility of this target group?
- Interventions to be taken
- The effort of smoke-free policy such as
smoke-free restaurants should be enforced in
Germany. - In willingness of the majority of the students
to accept a smoke-free setting, it should be
implemented into praxis.
sabine.meier_at_uni-bielefeld.de
16Thank you for your attention!
sabine.meier_at_uni-bielefeld.de