%0 Journal Article %J PLoS One %D 2017 %T Health assessment of French university students and risk factors associated with mental health disorders %A Tran, A %A Tran, L %A Geghre, N %A Darmon, D %A Rampal M %A Brandone D %A Gozzo JM %A Haas H %A Rebouillat-Savy K %A Caci H %A Avillach P %X
A total of 4,184 undergraduates were included. Prevalence for depression, anxiety and panic attacks were 12.6%, 7.6% and 1.0%, respectively. During the 30 days preceding the evaluation, 0.6% of the students regularly drank alcohol, 6.3% were frequent-to-heavy tobacco smokers, and 10.0% smoked marijuana. Dealing with financial difficulties and having learning disabilities were associated with psychiatric symptoms. Students who were dissatisfied with their living conditions and those with poor dietary behavior were at risk of depression. Being a woman and living alone were associated with anxiety. Students who screened positively for any psychiatric disorder assessed were at a higher risk of having another psychiatric disorder concomitantly.
The prevalence of psychiatric disorders in undergraduate students is low but the rate of students at risk of developing chronic disease is far from being negligible. Understanding predictors for these symptoms may improve students' health by implementing targeted prevention campaigns. Further research in other French universities is necessary to confirm our results.
%B PLoS One %V 12 %G eng %N 11