Do health-promoting lifestyle approaches manage mental health among adolescent/young college students?

Shabnam Omidvar; Nazanin Khajavi; Hajar Pasha; Farideh Mohsenzadeh Ledari; Mahdi Sepidarkish; Hajar Adib-Rad; Khadijeh Ezoji

doi:10.1515/ijamh-2024-0026

Article

Do health-promoting lifestyle approaches manage mental health among adolescent/young college students?

Shabnam Omidvar , Nazanin Khajavi , Hajar Pasha , Farideh Mohsenzadeh Ledari , Mahdi Sepidarkish , Hajar Adib-Rad and Khadijeh Ezoji

Published/Copyright: April 2, 2024

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From the journal International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health Volume 36 Issue 2

Abstract

Objectives

College students are often still relatively young, making their mental health more likely to be overlooked. A healthy lifestyle is considered the key to preventing and controlling mental health problems nowadays. This study aimed to investigate whether health-promoting lifestyle approaches manage mental health among adolescent/young college students.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 187 adolescent/young college students at Babol Medical Science University, Babol, Iran. Characteristic demographics, health-promoting lifestyle profile (HPLP), and general health questionnaire-28(GHQ-28) were filled out by students. The data were analyzed using correlation coefficient and simple and multiple linear regressions.

Results

The majority of participants were adolescents (66.8%), single (97.9%), and bachelor's students (70.1%). The mean of the HPLP and GHQ scores was 125.09±18.12, and 33.58±10.50, respectively. HPLP was a negative significant predictor of mental health (β = -.261, P= .0001). There was a negative significant association between HPLP dimensions (except physical activity) and mental health. After adjusting for other variables, there was a significant relationship between HPLP with mother occupation (β =.186, P=.038), and mother education (β = -.219, P= .034). Furthermore, gender (β = .175, P= .031), and occupation (β =-.157, P= .040) were predictors of GHQ in adolescent/young college students.

Conclusions

Regarding the health-promoting lifestyle situation among students and its relation with the better mental health, the design and implementation of HPLP education programs is recommended.

Keywords: health-promoting behaviors; mental health; college student; adolescence; university

Corresponding author: Hajar Pasha, Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran; Infertility and Reproductive Health Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran, Phone: +981132199595, Fax: +981132199936, E-mail: dhajarpasha@gmail.com

Acknowledgments

We are thankful to the Vice-Chancellery of Research and Technology of Babol University of Medical Sciences and gratefully acknowledge scientific support from the Research and Technology Empowerment Committee of Babol University of Medical Sciences. Furthermore, the authors would like to thank the college students for participating in the study.

Research ethics: The authors confirm safeguards of ethical standards. This project was confirmed by the ethics committee of the research unit of Babol Medical Sciences University with code IR.MUBABOL.REC.1399.203.
Author contributions: Shabnam Omidvar, Nazanin Khajavi, Hajar Pasha, and Farideh Mohsenzadeh Ledar did the study design, development of the questionnaire, and manuscript preparation. Literature review, data analysis, and manuscript drafting were done by Mahdi Sepidarkish, Hajar Pasha, Hajar Adib Rad, and Khadijeh Ezoji. Data collection was done by Nazanin Khajavi and Shabnam Omidvar. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent: Written informed consent was provided to all mothers before data collection for the present research. The study was conducted under the declaration of Helsinki.
Competing interests: The authors declare that have no conflict of interest.
Research funding: None declared.
Data availability: The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Received: 2024-02-21

Accepted: 2024-03-17

Published Online: 2024-04-02

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/ijamh-2024-0026

Keywords for this article

health-promoting behaviors; mental health; college student; adolescence; university