Religiosity and Health Risk Behaviour Among University Students in 26 Low, Middle and High Income Countries.

Publisher: Springer Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 2985199R Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1573-6571 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00224197 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Relig Health Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: New York, NY : Springer
Original Publication: New York : Academy of Religion and Mental Health.

Health Behavior* ; Income* ; Religion* ; Risk-Taking*; Students/*statistics & numerical data; Adolescent ; Adult ; Africa ; Asia ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Developed Countries ; Developing Countries ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; North America ; Risk Factors ; Socioeconomic Factors ; South America ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Universities ; Young Adult

The aim of this study was to assess religiosity and health risk behaviours among university students from 26 low, middle and high income countries. Using anonymous questionnaires, data were collected from 20,222 undergraduate university students (mean age 20.8, SD = 2. 8) from 27 universities in 26 countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas. Among all students, 41.1 % engaged at least once a week in organized religious activity, 35.8 % practised a non-organized religious activity daily or more than once daily, and more or less two-thirds of the students agreed to the three different statements on intrinsic of subjective religiosity. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, higher reported involvement in organized religious activity was associated with addictive, injury, sexual and oral health risk behaviour, while lower reported involvement in organized religious activity was associated with physical inactivity and oral health risk behaviour. Lower reported involvement in non-organized religious activity was associated with addictive, nutrition risk, injury, sexual and oral health risk behaviour, while higher reported involvement in non-organized religious activity was associated with physical inactivity. Finally, lower reported intrinsic religiosity was associated with addictive and sexual risk behaviour, while higher reported intrinsic religiosity was associated with nutrition risk behaviour, physical inactivity and oral health risk behaviour.

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Keywords: 26 countries; Health risk behaviour; Religiosity; University students

Date Created: 20160528 Date Completed: 20170609 Latest Revision: 20181113

20240628

10.1007/s10943-016-0260-5

27229939