Commonly Reported Illnesses among the College Students of Birmingham, United Kingdom

Abstract

Introduction: Career of adolescent college students may be influenced by physical illness. However it has not been observed to characterize the common health problems and beverage intake among these students or had been studied less often so, there might have been information gaps in the knowledge in this aspects.

Aim and objectives: The aim of this study was to identify the commonly prevalent health issues among such college going adolescents students in studying the nature of taking beverages and thus to associate if any relation exist(s) between such beverage intake and prevalent illness/disease in these students.

Methodology: This observational type of cross-sectional study was conducted among the adolescents college students (of Year 12 & 13) studying at the University of Birmingham School Sixth Form, England, UK.This study was conducted among the students of University of Birmingham School Campus for about 12 months, (from July 2022 to June 2023). All the 115 students enrolled, for the study population from which 90 samples were drawn using simple random sampling. Data were collected by employing face to face interview through a semi-structured questionnaire during my free time in between class intervals, administrating a face to face interview method.

Results: The mean age of 90-A level students was 16.74 ± 0.59 years, yielding a male predominance (83%). Most students preferred to drink artificial beverage (61%) other than any natural drink (21%). The top most common morbidity was respiratory illness (36%), the largest number among them 15% of who were suffering from upper respiratory tract illness (URTI). While assessing the commonly occurred morbidity (17%) reported to have common cold. Followed by about 1/3^rd of students (33%) had been suffering from neurological diseases, it was the second most common illness and 4% had been suffering from depression and anxiety. when one tenth used to suffer from headache (14%).Using a non-parametric test, it indicated not to yield any association between the food behaviours of beverage intake with any of the prevailing systemic illness among the students.

Conclusion: Students suffered mostly from URTI and/or common cold followed by neurological disorders/headache. The finding thus emphasizes the needs of regular health check-up of these college students, at par

The Journal of Ad-din Women's Medical College; Vol. 11 (2), July 2023; p 9-14