campusreview. com. au
ON CAMPUS
A silent epidemic
Unhealthy behaviour among university students, leading to poor mental health, shortens their life span and increases their chance of an untimely death.
Of particular concern is that data indicates university students are five times more likely to be diagnosed with a mental health disorder, compared to the general public. They also fail to meet recommended physical activity guidelines( of 60 minutes of exercise a day), and are increasingly sedentary.
Because of this, I conducted a research project last year to determine the influence of predictive factors on university students’ mental health. Participants were randomly selected and drawn from five major Australian universities. They were invited to complete an anonymous online survey.
Before I get to the findings, I’ ll share the consequences of poor mental health in students with you. Such students are less likely to perform well at university, contributing to:
University students are more likely to be diagnosed with mental health issues.
By Wayne Usher
• lower educational achievement
• increased chance of enrolment cancellations
• decreased employment
• lower income and standard of living
• negative learning and teaching experience
• increased impairment. From an economic perspective, it is reported that an estimated $ 16 trillion will be lost from the world’ s economy in the next 20 years as a result of people’ s poor mental health. Higher education institutions are aware of this, and are increasingly being held responsible for ensuring they promote positive student mental health. Yet there is limited data available to inform university policies and programs.
My research, an Australian university first, investigated patterns of association between three predictive factors: social emotional wellbeing, physical activity levels, and sporting club involvement, within personal, university, home and community spheres.
Here’ s what I found( which reflects the findings of many similar international studies): a quarter of participants indicated that they had been diagnosed with a mental health disorder by a health professional. Being female, being aged between 17 and 25, consistently consuming more than 10 standard alcoholic drinks each week, being a smoker, spending more hours per week on sedentary behaviours, and lower socioeconomic status were all positively and significantly associated with this.
By contrast, being a postgraduate student and having more people living with you were significantly negatively associated with this. Perhaps unsurprisingly, higher levels of physical activity and sporting club involvement were significantly( positively) associated with higher levels of happiness, resilience and positive body image.
The findings further indicated that Australian university students undertake inadequate levels of physical activity, to the extent that they are failing to meet national guidelines. Given the correlation between exercise and wellbeing, this is concerning.
Given this, where to from here? Primary prevention campaigns and strategies should aim to help university students improve aspects of the major mental health predictive factors. This is especially important for students who are most at risk of developing mental health disorders. ■
Dr Wayne Usher is a senior lecturer in health and physical education at Griffith University.
25