Abstract
Background and aims: Violence is recognized as a significant public health problem throughout the world. The present study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of violence-related behaviors and its relationship with other risky behaviors, family support, and religiosity among students in Bushehr.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on a total of 977 students in Bushehr city, southern Iran, in 2016. Required data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire on violence-related behaviors and other risky behaviors. The validity of the questionnaire was measured by MPH students with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.90. Additionally, family support scale and religious belief questionnaire were applied. Data analysis was performed using chi-square, t test, and logistic regression model in SPSS version 16.0.Results: The overall prevalence rates of weapon carrying and physical fighting were reported to be 9.1% and 7.1%, respectively. The findings of this study revealed that hookah use (OR: 2.93), physical fight (OR: 5.64), and having unsafe sex (OR: 2.42) were associated with weapon carrying (P < 0.001). Moreover, male gender (OR: 3.36), illicit drug use (OR: 3.64), weapon carrying (OR: 5.24), and family support (OR: 0.97) were shown to be associated with physical fight (P < 0.001).Conclusion: The results of the present study suggested co-occurrence nature of risky behaviors. Given the high prevalence of violence-related behaviors, the implementation of preventive interventions for college students is of great importance.
Highlights
Violence-related behaviors are major public health problems causing serious complications, disability, suffering, and death.[1,2] Violence is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation.[3]
The results of this study show that male gender, smoking, hookah use, alcohol use, illicit drug use, having unsafe sex were significantly associated with weapon carrying and physical fight (P < 0.05)
The mean scores of family support and religiosity were significantly lower in students with a history of weapon carrying and physical fight
Summary
Violence-related behaviors are major public health problems causing serious complications, disability, suffering, and death.[1,2] Violence is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation.[3]. The present study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of violence-related behaviors and its relationship with other risky behaviors, family support, and religiosity among students in Bushehr. Required data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire on violence-related behaviors and other risky behaviors. Male gender (OR: 3.36), illicit drug use (OR: 3.64), weapon carrying (OR: 5.24), and family support (OR: 0.97) were shown to be associated with physical fight (P < 0.001).
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