Journal
JOURNAL OF AMERICAN COLLEGE HEALTH
Volume 67, Issue 8, Pages 790-800Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/07448481.2018.1515744
Keywords
Mental health; tobacco; health behavior; clustering
Funding
- National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute [U54CA202995, U54CA202997, U54CA203000]
- Cancer Institute New South Wales Early Career Research Fellowship
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Objective: Examine the association of health risk behavior clusters with mental health status among US college students. Participants: 105,781 US college students who completed the Spring 2011 National College Health Assessment. Methods: We utilized the latent class analysis to determine clustering of health risk behaviors (alcohol binge drinking, cigarette/marijuana use, insufficient physical activity, and fruit/vegetable consumption), and chi-square and ANOVA analyses to examine associations between the class membership and mental health (mental health diagnoses, psychological symptoms, and self-injurious thoughts/behaviors). Results: Three classes were identified with differing rates of binge drinking, substance use, and insufficient physical activity but similar rates of insufficient fruit/vegetable consumption. Students classified with the highest rates of binge drinking and cigarette/marijuana use had the highest rates across all mental health variables compared to other classes. Conclusions: Students who reported engaging in multiple health risk behaviors, especially high alcohol and cigarette/marijuana use, were also more likely to report poorer mental health.
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