Symptoms and Health Complaints and Their Association with Perceived Stressors among Students at Nine Libyan Universities

Walid El Ansari, Khalid Khalil and Christiane Stock
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Walid El Ansari: Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of Gloucestershire, Gloucester GL2 9HW, UK
Khalid Khalil: Faculty of Medical Technology, Misrata, Libya
Christiane Stock: Unit for Health Promotion Research, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Esbjerg 6700, Denmark

IJERPH, 2014, vol. 11, issue 12, 1-20

Abstract: University students are exposed to many stressors. We assessed the associations between two stressors (educational related and general overall), socio-demographic characteristics (five variables), health behaviours/lifestyle factors (six variables), as well as religiosity and quality of life as independent variables, with self-reported symptoms/health complaints as dependent variables (eight health complaints). A sample of 2100 undergraduate students from nine institutions (six universities, three colleges) located in seven cities in Libya completed a general health questionnaire. The most prevalent symptoms were headaches, depressive mood, difficulties to concentrate and sleep disorder/insomnia that have been reported by 50%–60% of the students. The majority of students (62%) reported having had three or more symptoms sometimes or very often in the last 12 months. There was a positive association between perceived stressors and health symptoms, which remained significant after adjustment for gender and many other relevant factors for headache (OR 1.52; 95% CI 1.15–2.02), depressive mood (OR 2.20; 95% CI 1.64–2.94) and sleep disorder/ insomnia (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.19–2.03). Other factors independently associated with most health symptoms were female gender and poor self-perceived health. Stress management programmes and a reduction of educational related stressors might help to prevent stress-related symptoms and health complaints in this student population.

Keywords: self-reported symptoms/ health complaints; stressors; burdens; quality of life; university students (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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