Hábitos de saúde e qualidade de vida de universitários da área da Saúde

Abstract

College education has been increasingly expanding, mainly through the creation of governmental policies of access to universities, resulting in the increase and heterogeneity of its students. Learners are affected by the university context in a different way depending on their experiences and personal features which reflect on their quality of life (QOL) and health. This study aimed to analyze the health habits and QOL of university students from the bachelor degree courses in the Health area from a Federal Institution of College Education; depict the students from the health area sociodemographically; identify the health habits of students from the bachelor degree courses of the health area; compare the health habits and the QOL among the first, intermediate and final terms and between the sexes; measure the QOL within its domains and identify the relation among the predictors sex, monthly family income, course terms, health information received, inadequate habits, self-evaluation of health and QOL scores. It is an observational, sectional and of quantitative approach study, which relied on three questionnaires for data collection: the sociodemographic and clinic, the National College Health Risk Behavior, NCHRB and the WHOQOL-bref. The data have been analyzed in the statistical program SPSS 17.0. 253 university students have been investigated, 72,3% were females, the age average was 22,4 years, most were single, with white skin, migrant, residing with friends, free of chronic diseases and had a great health perception. The habits related to the use of illegal drugs, the frequency of sexual intercourse in the past 30 days and the health information received about STD prevention, HIV/AIDS and dietetic and nutritional habits proved statistically significant and increased among final term students. The safety and violence habits, such as the involvement in physical fight in the past 12 months, showed statistical significance, proving that men got involved in more physical fights than women. Regarding drug use, a statistically significant difference has been noticed indicating that men consumed alcohol, showed higher frequency of regular smoking and used marijuana more often than women. The students demonstrated better QOL perception in the Physical domain and lower perception in the Environment domain. The multiple linear regression analysis showed that predictor self-evaluation of health was statistically significant for the four QOL domains, meaning that the better the health perception, the better the QOL. A significant relation between the income predictor and the Environment domain was noticed, proving that the better the financial conditions, the better the QOL perception for this domain. It was possible to establish, in the bivariate analysis, a relation between health habits and QOL, indicating that healthy habits contributed to health and QOL of students. The results of this study may contribute to the development and implementation of actions for student assistance which aim the promotion of health and improvement of quality life of students, as well as the prevention of risk habits and disease in the university environment.