Association of Depression of College Students with Their Personal Health Beliefs and Behaviors

Abstract

Purpose: Depressive disorders are commonly observed in adolescents. Earlier recognition and management of depression were proven effective in reducing incidents of depressive disorder. Based on the assumption that belief is the basis of health behavior, this study is to investigate the association of depression with personal health beliefs and health behaviors of college students, the differences in personal health belief and behaviors between depressive and non-depressive college students, and the predictability of depression tendency of college students based on personal health belief and behaviors. Methods: 516 students from two colleges in northern Taiwan were pre-selected for evaluation using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) short form, personal health behaviors scale, and health belief scale. A non-depressed group and a depressed group consists of 182 and 170 students were formed based on the total BDI score. Results: The differences in health beliefs between the non-depressed and depressed groups were most significant in four factors of passive belief: ”health is uncontrollable”, ”other things are more important than health”, and ”health is controlled by other factors”; and less agreement: ”maintaining health requires assistance with medical professionals”. The depressed subjects are more likely to commit to excessive drink, slimming, or dieting than their non-depressed counterparts, and they are less likely to sleep for 7 to 9 hours or have breakfast on a regular basis. About 75.4 percent of depressed subjects could be correctly detected based on variables of health issues including perceived life is not satisfactory, infrequent health behaviors and two health beliefs health is uncontrollable and other things are more important than health. Conclusions: The results from this study suggest that depressed subjects were likely to have negative health beliefs, subjective dissatisfaction in life, less beneficial health behaviors, and more compromising health behaviors. Their disbelief in assistance by medical professionals for maintaining health further prevents them from carrying out beneficial health behaviors. Researchers in disciplines of health psychology and behavior medicine have advocated the interaction of body and psyche, claiming improving health-related behaviors could create more positive emotionality to reduce depression. Campus healthcare providers could consider formulating health behavior programs for adolescents to promote physical health and alleviate depressive mood.