Comparison between Physical Health and Mental Status of Korea High School Boarding Students

Abstract

Abstract Background: In Korea, most of students want to live in prestigious high school dormitories to study hard. These renowned high schools are divided into general and international high schools. Because of strict school life and massive amount of study students do, students have huge physical and mental problems. Our study provides a comparison between physical health and mental status at a dormitory in both schools. Methods: Between October and November 2014, 213 students (KIS; 123, SHS; 90) were enrolled. The study included the following: (1) individual school life (2) physical health (3) Zung self-rating depression scale (ZSDS) and Zung self-rating anxiety scale (ZSAS). Descriptive statistics presented. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences Software (SPSS-version 21) was used to analyze the data. Results: There was no statistical difference between students from the two schools on individual school life, mean ZSDS and ZSAS (P>0.05). But, in KIS students, a positive and statistically significant association was observed in several positive symptoms items scale. Depression and anxiety scale showed mild depressed students (44.7%/40%) and mild to moderate anxiety students (17.8%/16,6%) in KIS and SHS respectively. But for physical symptoms, KIS students were more significantly troubled than SHS students: tremor (16.3%/1.1%), tinnitus (36.6%/ 10%), loss of hearing function (10.6%/2.2%), coughing (54.5%/40%), sputum (45.5%/31.1%), hoarseness (25.4%/ 11.1%), chest pain (21.1%/7.8%), edema (8.1%/1.1%), epigastric pain (20.3%/8.9%), vomiting (24.4%/8.9%), skin eruption (15.4%/6.7%) (P<0.05). Conclusions: Our study showed that there are more positive mental symptoms in KIS where they are more focused on an American curriculum than at SHS where they are more focused on a Korean academic curriculum. But like psychosomatic symptoms, physical symptoms were more prevalent in KIS students. This result could indicate that KIS students are more troubled in terms of physical symptoms due to geographic isolated situation, separated duration with family, and strict school life at KIS.