Physical and mental health issues facing community college students

To examine health concerns among community college (CC) students by (1) identifying and coding the self-reported health issues facing CC students and (2) examining demographic and psychosocial variables associated with health categories. 

Participants: 946 CC students (M_age = 26.37) recruited from January 2017 to February 2017 who completed a screening survey for a larger study. Students were asked to “List three health issues facing Community College students today.” 

Methods: Health issues were coded into broad categories and subcategories. 

Results: Among the 2,601 health issues reported, one-third were medical health (36%), one-third were mental health (33%), with substance use (14%), other health (14%), and access to health care (3%) also reported. The most commonly identified health issues were “general medical issues,” “stress,” “depression,” and “sleep.” 

Conclusions: Programmatic efforts to support CC students and promote prevention/intervention strategies for mental health, sleep, substance use, access to health care, and general medical concerns, remain essential. 

Cadigan, J. M., Duckworth, J. C., & Lee, C. M. (2020). Physical and mental health issues facing community college students. Journal of American college health : J of ACH, 1–7. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2020.1776716

Citation/Abstract Retrieved from National Library of Medicine/PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32569500/