Predictors of hazardous drinking, tobacco smoking and physical inactivity in vocational school students

Abstract

BackgroundTobacco smoking, hazardous drinking and physical inactivity during adolescence are risk factors that are associated with poorer health in adulthood. The identification of subgroups of young people with a high prevalence of one or more of these risk factors allows an optimised allocation of preventive measures. This study aimed at investigating hazardous drinking, tobacco smoking and physical inactivity as well as their associations and demographic predictors in vocational school students.MethodsOut of 57 contacted vocational schools in Switzerland, a total of 24 schools participated in a survey assessing gender, age, immigrant background, educational attainment and vocational field as well as the above mentioned health risk factors. Out of the 2659 students present in 177 included vocational school classes, 2647 (99.5%) completed the survey. Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate the demographic predictors of each health risk factor and a multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate predictors of different risk factor combinations.ResultsOf the surveyed students, 79.4% showed at least one risk factor, 43.6% showed two or more and 9.6% showed all three health risk factors. Hazardous drinking was more prevalent in male, physical inactivity was more prevalent in female vocational school students. The proportion of students with low physical activity and tobacco smoking increased with increasing age. While the combination of hazardous drinking and tobacco smoking was higher in males, the other risk factor combinations were observed particularly among females.ConclusionsMultiple risk factors were ascertained in a significant proportion of vocational school students. Specifically, tobacco smoking and hazardous drinking were coexistent. The study underlines the need for preventive measures in specific subpopulations of adolescents and young adults with lower educational level.

Behavioral Health Risk Profiles of Undergraduate University Students in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland: A Cluster Analysis

“…Generally, our findings are in line with other studies. For instance, our results are supported by research among young people (15–21 years and older) in Switzerland, where multiple risk factors were observed in a substantial proportion of young people (12). Likewise, our four clusters of BRFs resonate with an Irish study among the general population, where research of health behavior clustering in a nationally representative adult sample observed six clusters (20).…”

“…CA is premised on shared characteristics to categorize a given population into mutually exclusive subgroups (clusters) for which the properties or patterns within a cluster are similar to each other than they are to properties within a different cluster (10, 11). Indeed, researchers have voiced that most health behavior research has adopted an approach where behaviors were studied in isolation and traditionally focused on individual risk behavior/s, in segregation from other BRFs (4, 7), despite that BRFs co-exist together and are related to one another (12). Limited research has explored clustering of lifestyle BRFs; and the studies that undertook such approach rarely focused on university students.…”

Health-promoting lifestyles and cardio-metabolic risk factors among international students in South Korea

“…Moreover, these CVD risks are worse when smoking and drinking occur together. Particularly, previous studies involving university students have shown that the smoking/tobacco use and drinking habits formed during this adulthood period and these hazard habits can affect CVDs (Haug et al, 2013;Mukamal, 2006;Steptoe et al, 2002;Wicki et al, 2010). For example, the combination of smoking and drinking was often in university male students in a recent Swedish study (Haug et al, 2013) and in review articles among European student populations (Wicki et al, 2010).…”

“…Although some studies have investigated the relationship between health and lifestyle factors (i.e. drinking, smoking, and physical activity) among international students (Haug, Schaub, Salis Gross, John, & Meyer, 2013;Pan, Wong, Joubert, & Chan, 2007;Steptoe et al, 2002;Wicki, Kuntsche, & Gmel, 2010), most of these studies were conducted in Western countries and the study participants were mostly international students from China, Taiwan, or Vietnam Do & Cho, 2009;Ying, 2005). Furthermore, there is a limited amount of research regarding health-promoting lifestyles and cardio-metabolic risks among international students in Asian countries such as Korea (Yan & Cardinal, 2013).…”

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“…11 Smoking prevalences are particularly high in adolescents and young adults with lower educational levels. 14 …”