Mediators of University Students 'Self-Rated Health Status

Abstract

Self-rated health status (SRHS) is a reliable and valid measure for assessing the subjective health of individuals. University students' physical health's are important and comprise many variables. This study assessed perceived health status of 303 students from Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Of 303 students, about 65% students rated their health as healthy while 35% rated as unhealthy. Majority of the student's (about 70%) bears a standard body mass index (kg/m2) where as 30% are not standard (19.5% are under weight and 9.5% are over-weight). About 42% student mentioned their mental health condition as strong and 58% as weak. Logistic regression analyses revealed that age, female status, low level of Mother's education, weak mental health and under/over-weight were associated with lower self-rated health. The results suggest that SRHS can be reasonably used to compare students' health across countries.