title: Symptoms and health complaints and their association with perceived stressors among students at nine Libyan universities.
abstract: University students are exposed to many stressors. We assessed the associations between two stressors (educational related and general overall), socio-demographic characteristics (five variables), health behaviours/lifestyle factors (six variables), as well as religiosity and quality of life as independent variables, with self-reported symptoms/health complaints as dependent variables (eight health complaints). A sample of 2100 undergraduate students from nine institutions (six universities, three colleges) located in seven cities in Libya completed a general health questionnaire. The most prevalent symptoms were headaches, depressive mood, difficulties to concentrate and sleep disorder/insomnia that have been reported by 50%-60% of the students. The majority of students (62%) reported having had three or more symptoms sometimes or very often in the last 12 months. There was a positive association between perceived stressors and health symptoms, which remained significant after adjustment for gender and many other relevant factors for headache (OR 1.52; 95% CI 1.15-2.02), depressive mood (OR 2.20; 95% CI 1.64-2.94) and sleep disorder/ insomnia (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.19-2.03). Other factors independently associated with most health symptoms were female gender and poor self-perceived health. Stress management programmes and a reduction of educational related stressors might help to prevent stress-related symptoms and health complaints in this student population.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of Gloucestershire, Gloucester GL2 9HW, UK. walidansari@glos.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Walid
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: El Ansari
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medical Technology, Misrata, Libya. khalid8128@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Khalid
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Khalil
authors.affiliation: Unit for Health Promotion Research, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Esbjerg 6700, Denmark. cstock@health.sdu.dk.
authors.forename: Christiane
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stock
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008002:Libya; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult