Prevalence of health-related behaviours and associated factors in university students in Ireland: a 4-year repeated cross-sectional study.

Background: Transitioning to higher education (HE) has been highlighted as a critical time to embed positive health-related behaviours (HRBs). However, there has been a long-standing association between student life and risk-taking. This study aimed to (1) identify the prevalence of HRBs over time in cohorts of HE students in Ireland, (2) establish an overall health index and analyse the health-related status of HE students and associated factors based on this index and (3) explore student perspectives towards public health interventions.

Methods: Using an anonymous, repeated measures, cross-sectional study design, 4 years of data were gathered and analysed from a student sample (N (final)=3221). A series of Pearson's χ, t-tests and one-way analysis of variance tests followed by linear regression analysis were performed to determine the individual and combined associations between participant characteristics and health scores.

Results: There were notable unfavourable patterns over time in all HRBs, except tobacco use, which indicated a declining trend. Factors associated with lower health index scores included identifying as female, living at home, higher socioeconomic status, studying in the arts humanities and social sciences field and having a higher body mass index. Most students reported they would avail of an intervention on drug use (78.1%, 95% CI 0.77% to 0.80%), alcohol consumption (75.7%, 95% CI 0.74% to 0.77%), tobacco use (67.3%, 95% CI 0.66% to 0.69%) and mental health (65.4%, 95% CI 0.64% to 0.67%) if they felt that they needed to.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates a clear rationale for providing health-enhancing behavioural interventions for students in HE settings. Outcomes may be of interest to educationalists, policy-makers and health-promotion experts.