HEALTH RISK BEHAVIOUR AMONG UNDERGRADUATES IN A MALAYSIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITY: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Authors

  • Liew H C
  • Noor Illiati I
  • Raymond Yii S L
  • Siti Nadzrah Y
  • Moy F M

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:
Health-risky behaviours among undergraduates are a course of concern both due to its tendency to be carried towards later adulthood and the emergence of non-communicable diseases at younger age group.
METHODS AND MATERIAL:
A cross-sectional study involving 1622 respondents comprising of students undertaking tertiary education was carried out using self-administered questionnaires. (adapted and translated into Bahasa Malaysia from the CDC Health Risk Behaviour Survey)
RESULTS:
It is found that 6.9% of the respondents have had sexual intercourse with the mean age of the first intercourse at 18.6 years. Of those who have had intercourse, 25.9% did not practice safe sex. The study showed that 7.2% of the undergraduates who drives have driven after taking alcohol and 19.3% of the respondents have travelled in a car driven by drunk driver. It is also found that 10.8% of the respondents tried smoking at a young age of 15 years. One point two percent (1.2%) of the studied population has also taken recreational drugs previously.
CONCLUSION:
Health risk behaviours among undergraduates in Malaysia are presently existing issues which poses serious concerns.

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Published

2011-12-26

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 2 (2011)

Section

Research article

License

All authors agree that the article, if editorially accepted for publication, shall be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 to allow others to freely access, copy and use research provided the author is correctly attributed, unless otherwise stated. All articles are available online without charge or other barriers to access. However, anyone wishing to reproduce large quantities of an article (250+) should inform the publisher. Any opinion expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not reflect that of the University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.