IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v8y2011i5p1308-1323d12186.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Feeling Healthy? A Survey of Physical and Psychological Wellbeing of Students from Seven Universities in the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Walid El Ansari

    (Faculty of of Applied Sciences, University of Gloucestershire, Oxstalls Campus, Oxstalls Lane, Gloucester GL2 9HW, UK)

  • Christiane Stock

    (Unit for Health Promotion Research, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Niels Bohrs Vej 9-10, 6700 Esbjerg, Denmark)

  • The UK Student Health Group: Sherrill Snelgrove

    (School of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, Wales, UK)

  • Xiaoling Hu

    (Business School, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL50 2RH, UK)

  • Sian Parke

    (School of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, Wales, UK)

  • Shân Davies

    (School of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, Wales, UK)

  • Jill John

    (School of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, Wales, UK)

  • Hamed Adetunji

    (School of Health & Social Care, Oxford Brookes University, Marston, Oxford OX3 0FL, UK)

  • Mary Stoate

    (School of Science, Society and Management, Bath Spa University, Newton St. Loe, Bath BA2 9BN, UK)

  • Pat Deeny

    (Institute of Nursing Research, School of Nursing, University of Ulster, Londonderry, Northern Ireland BT48 7Jl, UK)

  • Ceri Phillips

    (School of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, Wales, UK)

  • Andi Mabhala

    (Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Chester, Castle Drive, Chester CH1 4BJ, UK)

Abstract

University students’ physical and psychological health and wellbeing are important and comprise many variables. This study assessed perceived health status in addition to a range of physical and psychological wellbeing indicators of 3,706 undergraduate students from seven universities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. We compared differences in these variables across males and females, and across the participating universities. The data was collected in 2007–2008. A self-administered questionnaire assessed socio-demographic information (e.g., gender, age), self-reported physical and psychological health data, as well as questions on health awareness, health service use, social support, burdens and stressors and university study related questions. While females generally reported more health problems and psychological burdens, male students felt that they received/had fewer persons to depend on for social support. The comparisons of health and wellbeing variables across the different universities suggested some evidence of ‘clustering’ of the variables under study, whereby favourable situations would be exhibited by a cluster of the variables that is encountered at some universities; and conversely, the clustering of less favourable variables as exhibited at other universities. We conclude that the level of health complaints and psychological problems/burdens is relatively high and calls for increased awareness of university administrators, leaders and policy makers to the health and well-being needs of their students. The observed clustering effects also indicated the need for local (university-specific) health and wellbeing profiles as basis and guidance for relevant health promotion programmes at universities.

Suggested Citation

  • Walid El Ansari & Christiane Stock & The UK Student Health Group: Sherrill Snelgrove & Xiaoling Hu & Sian Parke & Shân Davies & Jill John & Hamed Adetunji & Mary Stoate & Pat Deeny & Ceri Phillips & A, 2011. "Feeling Healthy? A Survey of Physical and Psychological Wellbeing of Students from Seven Universities in the UK," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-16, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:8:y:2011:i:5:p:1308-1323:d:12186
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/8/5/1308/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/8/5/1308/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Walid El Ansari & Susanne Vodder Clausen & Andi Mabhala & Christiane Stock, 2010. "How Do I Look? Body Image Perceptions among University Students from England and Denmark," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-13, February.
    2. Marjan Vaez & Margareta Kristenson & Lucie Laflamme, 2004. "Perceived Quality of Life and Self-Rated Health among First-Year University Students," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 68(2), pages 221-234, September.
    3. Walid El Ansari & Christiane Stock & Ceri Phillips & Andi Mabhala & Mary Stoate & Hamed Adetunji & Pat Deeny & Jill John & Shan Davies & Sian Parke & Xiaoling Hu & Sherrill Snelgrove, 2011. "Does the Association between Depressive Symptomatology and Physical Activity Depend on Body Image Perception? A Survey of Students from Seven Universities in the UK," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-19, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Walid El Ansari & Reza Oskrochi & Ghollamreza Haghgoo, 2014. "Are Students’ Symptoms and Health Complaints Associated with Perceived Stress at University? Perspectives from the United Kingdom and Egypt," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-22, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Walid El Ansari & Reza Oskrochi & Ghollamreza Haghgoo, 2014. "Are Students’ Symptoms and Health Complaints Associated with Perceived Stress at University? Perspectives from the United Kingdom and Egypt," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-22, September.
    2. Matilde Bini & Lucio Masserini, 2016. "Students’ Satisfaction and Teaching Efficiency of University Offer," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 129(2), pages 847-862, November.
    3. M. Sirgy & Dong-Jin Lee & Stephan Grzeskowiak & Grace Yu & Dave Webb & Karma El-Hasan & Jose Jesus Garcia Vega & Ahmet Ekici & J. Johar & Anjala Krishen & Ayca Kangal & Bernhard Swoboda & C. Claiborne, 2010. "Quality of College Life (QCL) of Students: Further Validation of a Measure of Well-being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 99(3), pages 375-390, December.
    4. Andrew Denovan & Ann Macaskill, 2017. "Stress and Subjective Well-Being Among First Year UK Undergraduate Students," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 505-525, April.
    5. Dana Badau & Adela Badau, 2018. "Identifying the Incidence of Exercise Dependence Attitudes, Levels of Body Perception, and Preferences for Use of Fitness Technology Monitoring," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-20, November.
    6. M. Sirgy & Stephan Grzeskowiak & Don Rahtz, 2007. "Quality of College Life (QCL) of Students: Developing and Validating a Measure of Well-Being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 80(2), pages 343-360, January.
    7. Sevda Arslan & Ozlem Akkas, 2014. "Quality of College Life (QCL) of Students in Turkey: Students’ Life Satisfaction and Identification," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 115(2), pages 869-884, January.
    8. Graciela H. Tonon, 2021. "Student’s Quality of Life at the University: a Qualitative Study," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(4), pages 1517-1535, August.
    9. Jing Xiao & Chuanyi Tang & Soyeon Shim, 2009. "Acting for Happiness: Financial Behavior and Life Satisfaction of College Students," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 92(1), pages 53-68, May.
    10. Ruth Kaziga & Charles Muchunguzi & Dorcus Achen & Susan Kools, 2021. "Beauty Is Skin Deep; The Self-Perception of Adolescents and Young Women in Construction of Body Image within the Ankole Society," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-14, July.
    11. Ronald Herrera & Ursula Berger & Jon Genuneit & Jessica Gerlich & Dennis Nowak & Wolff Schlotz & Christian Vogelberg & Erika Von Mutius & Gudrun Weinmayr & Doris Windstetter & Matthias Weigl & Katja R, 2017. "Chronic Stress in Young German Adults: Who Is Affected? A Prospective Cohort Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-13, October.
    12. Isabella Giulia Franzoi & Fabrizio D’Ovidio & Giuseppe Costa & Angelo d’Errico & Antonella Granieri, 2021. "Self-Rated Health and Psychological Distress among Emerging Adults in Italy: A Comparison between Data on University Students, Young Workers and Working Students Collected through the 2005 and 2013 Na," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-12, June.
    13. Walid El Ansari & Christiane Stock & Ceri Phillips & Andi Mabhala & Mary Stoate & Hamed Adetunji & Pat Deeny & Jill John & Shan Davies & Sian Parke & Xiaoling Hu & Sherrill Snelgrove, 2011. "Does the Association between Depressive Symptomatology and Physical Activity Depend on Body Image Perception? A Survey of Students from Seven Universities in the UK," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-19, January.
    14. Tho Nguyen & Clifford Shultz & M. Westbrook, 2012. "Psychological Hardiness in Learning and Quality of College Life of Business Students: Evidence from Vietnam," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(6), pages 1091-1103, December.
    15. Mónica Pachón-Basallo & Jesús de la Fuente & María Carmen Gonzáles-Torres, 2021. "Regulation/Non-Regulation/Dys-Regulation of Health Behavior, Psychological Reactance, and Health of University Undergraduate Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-20, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:8:y:2011:i:5:p:1308-1323:d:12186. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.