Health behavior interventions for university students measuring mental health outcomes: A scoping review

Adopting vegetarian and vegan eating patterns: Associations with disordered eating behaviors among young adult college students

INTRODUCTION

Vegan and vegetarian diets are increasingly popular, though there is concern that disordered eating can drive, emerge, or intensify from the choice to adopt dietary restrictions.

OBJECTIVE

We sought to ascertain whether disordered eating or weight-control behaviors are associated with newly adopting a vegetarian/vegan diet during college and to assess symptom awareness and treatment utilization.

METHODS

Data came from 11,503 students in the Healthy Minds Study spanning 2015-2021. We examined associations between (i) the SCOFF eating disorder screener and (ii) symptom-specific items from the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire, and recent adoption of a vegan/vegetarian diet. Participants' knowledge of eating disorder symptoms and experiences with treatment utilization were also assessed.

RESULTS

Five-hundred thirty-two participants (∼5 %) reported adopting a vegan/vegetarian diet. Compared to students who did not change eating patterns, those who adopted vegetarianism/veganism had higher past-month prevalence of binge eating (25 % vs, 16 %), compulsive exercise (18 % vs. 9 %), and fasting (12 % vs. 8 %). Each behavior was significantly associated with greater odds of having recently adopted a vegetarian/vegan diet. A positive SCOFF screen (2+ items) was associated with 1.79-times (95 % CI: 1.48, 2.16) greater odds of newly adopting a vegetarian/vegan diet. There were no observed differences between groups with respect to knowledge of eating disorder symptoms or treatment-seeking attitudes and behaviors.

DISCUSSION

Disordered eating or weight-control behaviors were prevalent in this population of young adults and were associated with adopting a vegetarian/vegan diet, though awareness and help-seeking were not elevated among those with higher eating disorder risk.

Factors related to risky alcohol consumption and binge drinking in Spanish college students: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of risky alcohol consumption and regular binge drinking, and their associated factors, in Spanish college students.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study was conducted.

SETTING

This study took place at a private university in a northern region of Spain.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 330 Spanish undergraduate university students enrolled in the 2022-2023 academic year voluntarily agreed to participate in this investigation.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES

Data collection included sociodemographic information and health-related behaviours. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test was used to assess alcohol consumption. Logistic regression models were used to identify independent predictors for risky alcohol consumption and regular binge drinking.

RESULTS

40.0% of participants reported risky alcohol consumption, and 26.7% were classified as regular binge drinkers. Factors associated with risky alcohol consumption included smoking (OR=3.54, 95% CI 2.03 to 6.14) and problematic internet use (OR=2.10, 95% CI 1.24 to 3.53). Conversely, being older than 30 years was associated with a lower likelihood (OR=0.22, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.60). Regular binge drinking was associated with living outside the family home (OR=2.78, 95% CI 1.56 to 4.95), smoking (OR=3.53, 95% CI 1.94 to 6.40) and problematic internet use (OR=2.19, 95% CI 1.23 to 3.89). In contrast, being female (OR=0.50, 95% CI 0.27 to 0.94) and being over 30 years old (OR=0.28, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.86) were inversely associated.

CONCLUSIONS

Risky alcohol consumption and binge drinking are relatively common among Spanish university students. Interventions to promote responsible alcohol consumption among this population should be implemented in collaboration with other stakeholders.

The impact of health promotion training on university students' health perceptions, healthy lifestyle behaviors, and risky behaviors

Introduction

University period is a critical developmental stage in which health-related behaviors that will be effective throughout life are acquired. This study aims to to evaluate the effect of health promotion education given touniversity students on health perception, health behaviors and risky behaviors, to investigate the impact of the demographic characteristics of the participants on these three variables, and to investigate the potential relationship between the three variables.

Methods

It is a quasi-experimental study using a pre-post test design This study was conducted with 179 students. The Health Perception Scale, the Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale, and the Risky Behaviors Scale were used to collect the data. A 7-week training program was implemented, and the post-training evaluation was made after 3 months. Percentage, mean, standard deviation, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, Wilcoxon analysis, and Spearmen Correlation analysis were used to analyze the data.

Results

After health promotion training, it was determined that health perception and healthy lifestyle behaviors increased and risky behaviors decreased. A significant negative relationship was found between health perception after training and antisocial behavior, suicidal tendencies and dropping out of school. A significant negative relationship was found between healthy lifestyle habits and antisocial behavior, suicidal tendencies and school dropout. A positive significant relationship was determined between health perception and healthy lifestyle behaviors. The results of this study provide evidence of the effectiveness of training interventions in improving healthy lifestyle behaviors and health perception and reducing risky behaviors.

Discussion

The results support the planning of training programs to promote health on campuses. It also shows the effectiveness of training programs in preventing antisocial behavior, suicidal tendencies and school dropout.

Group-format, peer-facilitated mental health promotion interventions for students in higher education settings: a scoping review protocol

INTRODUCTION

Young people in higher education face various stressors that can make them vulnerable to mental ill-health. Mental health promotion in this group therefore has important potential benefits. Peer-facilitated and group-format interventions may be feasible and sustainable. The scoping review outlined in this protocol aims to map the literature on group-format, peer-facilitated, in-person interventions for mental health promotion for higher education students attending courses on campuses in high and low/middle-income countries.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

Relevant studies will be identified through conducting searches of electronic databases, including Medline, CINAHL, Scopus, ERIC and PsycINFO. Searches will be conducted using Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) and truncation functions appropriate for each database. We will include a grey literature search. We will include articles from student participants of any gender, and published in peer-reviewed journals between 2008 and 2023. We will include English-language studies and all study types including randomised controlled trials, pilot studies and descriptive studies of intervention development. A draft charting table has been developed, which includes the fields: author, publication date, country/countries, aims, population and sample size, demographics, methods, intervention type, comparisons, peer training, number of sessions/duration of intervention, outcomes and details of measures.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

No primary data will be collected from research participants to produce this review so ethics committee approval is not required. All data will be collated from published peer-reviewed studies already in the public domain. We will publish the review in an open-access, peer-reviewed journal accessible to researchers in low/middle-income countries. This protocol is registered on Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/agbfj/).

Sleep duration and quality during the COVID-19 pandemic and the association with physical activity and screen time among Brazilian college students

BACKGROUND

As a result of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, changes in sleep patterns have been observed in many countries, as well as changes in physical activity and screen time. The objective was to investigate sleep duration and quality during the COVID-19 pandemic and its association with physical activity and screen time.

METHODS

Cross-sectional study with students from a University in Rio de Janeiro who answered an online questionnaire between August 2020 and March 2021. Physical activity was assessed using IPAQ-SF. Sleep was investigated based on questions about duration and sleep quality change, and screen time through self-reported questions. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to assess the association between physical activity and screen time with sleep duration and quality. Secondary analyses investigated the influence of the isolation time on this association. The confounding factors used were diagnosis of COVID-19, time of isolation, anxiety, depression, skin color, and gender.

RESULTS

A total of 771 college students with a mean age of 24.5 years (±8.6) answered the questionnaire. About 75% reported more than 8 h of screen time per day and 49.8% were physically inactive. Regarding sleep, 54.9% had worsening sleep, while 40.6% had inadequate sleep duration during the pandemic. Physical activity was associated with improved sleep quality (Odds ratio (OR) 1.72; confidence interval (95% CI) 1.05-2.97). Also, physically active students who spent more than 14 weeks in social isolation demonstrated improved sleep quality (OR 1.99; 95% CI 1.02-3.78) compared to physically inactive individuals. No association was observed for sleep duration. No association was observed between screen time and sleep quality, or sleep duration.

CONCLUSION

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was considerable worsening of sleep quality, and physical activity was positively associated with improved sleep quality.

Characteristics of RCTs focusing on health promotion in community samples: a scoping review protocol based on the d-CoSPICO framework

INTRODUCTION

Developing the capabilities of individuals, groups and communities to enhance their health has received a great deal of attention in the literature. One essential source of results is evidence-based intervention programmes, which often involve a number of different variables. This paper describes a methodology for carrying out a scoping review that maps available evidence on randomised controlled trials focusing on health promotion intervention programmes.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

The scoping review protocol follows the general Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines. It also incorporates some modifications to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Review flowchart and complements its methodological framework. This new format, called documents, Concept, Studies, Participants, Interventions, Comparator, and Outcomes (d-CoSPICO), guides the review sequence, which is represented in a flowchart. The search will focus on different sources of information using formal (searches in thematic -PubPsych, ERIC, MedLine, PsychINFO- and multidisciplinary databases -Academic Search Ultimate, Core Collection Web of Science, Scopus and ProQuest-, repositories and other websites), informal (contact with researchers), and retrospective (previous reviews on this topic) strategies to identify relevant publications until 2021, including grey literature. Coding, identification, selection, and data extraction will be carried out following the generation of a database in which each retrieved record's content (abstract and/or full text) can be analysed. The review is expected to be completed in 2023.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

Ethical approval is not required for this review. The d-CoSPICO framework and the results will be disseminated through (a) peer-reviewed publications; (b) presentations at scientific dissemination events and (c) training activities for applying this protocol.

Bidirectional associations of physical activity, sleep, and self-reported mental health in young adults participating in an online wellness intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine the bidirectional associations of physical activity (PA), sleep, and mental health in young adults participating in an online wellness intervention from October 2021 to April 2022.

Methods

Participants were a sample of undergraduate students from one US university (N = 89; 28.0% freshman; 73.0% female). The intervention was a 1-h health coaching session that was delivered either once or twice by peer health coaches on Zoom during COVID-19. The number of coaching sessions was determined by random allocation of participants to experimental groups. Lifestyle and mental health assessments were collected at two separate assessment timepoints after each session. PA was assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form. Weekday and weekend sleep were assessed by two one-item questionnaires and mental health was calculated from five items. Cross-lagged panel models (CLPMs) examined the crude bidirectional associations of PA, sleep, and mental health across four-time waves (i.e., T1 through T4). To control for individual unit effects and time-invariant covariates, linear dynamic panel-data estimation using maximum likelihood and structural equation modeling (ML-SEM) was also employed.

Results

ML-SEMs showed that mental health predicted future weekday sleep (β = 0.46, p < 0.001) and weekend sleep predicted future mental health (β = 0.11, p = 0.028). Although CLPMs showed significant associations between T2 PA and T3 mental health (β = 0.27, p = 0.002), no associations were observed when unit effects and time-invariant covariates were accounted for.

Conclusion

Self-reported mental health was a positive predictor of weekday sleep and weekend sleep positively predicted mental health during the online wellness intervention.