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A cross‐sectional investigation of depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms and health‐behavior participation in A ustralian university students
Author(s) -
Lovell Geoff P.,
Nash Kim,
Sharman Rachael,
Lane Ben R.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
nursing and health sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.563
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1442-2018
pISSN - 1441-0745
DOI - 10.1111/nhs.12147
Subject(s) - mental health , anxiety , clinical psychology , intervention (counseling) , depressive symptoms , sleep (system call) , cross sectional study , depression (economics) , sleep quality , quality of life (healthcare) , psychology , medicine , psychiatry , gerontology , insomnia , nursing , economics , pathology , computer science , macroeconomics , operating system
Transitioning to university involves a major life change that can have implications for physical and mental health. This study had three objectives: first, assess the mental health and health‐behavior participation of A ustralian university students; second, evaluate clustering of health behaviors; and third, examine how mental health relates to health behaviors. University students ( n = 751) enrolled at an A ustralian regional university completed an online survey containing the D epression, A nxiety, and S tress S cales and a health‐behavior questionnaire. Over one‐third of students reported mild or higher mental illness symptoms and most reported engaging in multiple unhealthy behaviors. Furthermore, mental health was associated with unhealthy behaviors. For males, depressive symptoms were associated with skipping breakfast and poor sleep quality. For females, depressive symptoms were associated with skipping breakfast, inadequate vigorous physical activity, and short or long sleep hours. Stress symptoms in females were associated with healthy sleep hours, but poor sleep quality. Future research may consider whether an intervention targeting one or two key health behaviors has utility in improving participation in other health behaviors and mental health.