Happiness and health behaviours in Chilean college students: A cross-sectional survey

Background: Happiness has been associated with a range of favourable health outcomes through two pathways: its relationship with favourable biological responses to stress and with healthy lifestyles and prudent health behaviours. There are a substantial number of cross-cultural studies about happine...

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Autores: Piqueras, Jose A, Kuhne, Walter, Vera-Villarroel, Pablo, van Straten, Annemieke, Cuijpers, Pim
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:España
Institución:Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche
Repositorio:REDIUMH. Depósito Digital de la UMH
OAI Identifier:oai:dspace.umh.es:11000/35878
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11000/35878
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:CDU::1 - Filosofía y psicología::159.9 - Psicología
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spelling Happiness and health behaviours in Chilean college students: A cross-sectional surveyPiqueras, Jose AKuhne, WalterVera-Villarroel, Pablovan Straten, AnnemiekeCuijpers, PimCDU::1 - Filosofía y psicología::159.9 - PsicologíaBackground: Happiness has been associated with a range of favourable health outcomes through two pathways: its relationship with favourable biological responses to stress and with healthy lifestyles and prudent health behaviours. There are a substantial number of cross-cultural studies about happiness, but none of them has studied the association of happiness with perceived stress and health behaviours in Latin American samples. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the association between general happiness and these variables in a Latin American sample. Methods: We conducted a survey to examine the status of 3461 students aged between 17 and 24 years old (mean age = 19.89; SD = 1.73) who attended University of Santiago de Chile during 2009. The healthy behaviours indexes assessed were the frequency of daily physical exercise, fruits/vegetables intake, breakfast and lunch intake, smoking, alcohol and other drugs consumption. We also included the assessment of perceived stress and Body Mass Index. All of them were evaluated using a self-report questionnaire. Results: The univariate and multivariate binary logistic regression analyses showed that being female and younger was related to a higher happiness, as well as that people self-reporting daily physical activity, having lunch and fruits and vegetables each day had a higher likelihood (OR between 1.33 and 1.40) of being classified as “very happy”. Those who informed felt stressed in normal circumstances and during tests situations showed a lower likelihood (0.73 and 0.82, respectively) of being considered “very happy”. Regarding drug consumption, taking tranquilizers under prescription was negative related to “subjective happiness” (OR = 0.62), whereas smoking was positive associated (OR = 1.20). Conclusions: The findings of this study mainly support the relationship between happiness and health outcomes through the two pathways previously mentioned. They also underscore the importance of that some healthy behaviours and person’s cognitive appraisal of stress are integrated into their lifestyle for college students. Additionally, highlight the importance of taking into account these variables in the design of strategies to promote health education in university setting.BioMed CentralDepartamentos de la UMH::Psicología de la Salud202520252011info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdf10application/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/11000/35878reponame:REDIUMH. Depósito Digital de la UMHinstname:Universidad Miguel Hernández de ElcheIngléshttps://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-443info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/oai:dspace.umh.es:11000/358782026-05-27T13:36:21Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Happiness and health behaviours in Chilean college students: A cross-sectional survey
title Happiness and health behaviours in Chilean college students: A cross-sectional survey
spellingShingle Happiness and health behaviours in Chilean college students: A cross-sectional survey
Piqueras, Jose A
CDU::1 - Filosofía y psicología::159.9 - Psicología
title_short Happiness and health behaviours in Chilean college students: A cross-sectional survey
title_full Happiness and health behaviours in Chilean college students: A cross-sectional survey
title_fullStr Happiness and health behaviours in Chilean college students: A cross-sectional survey
title_full_unstemmed Happiness and health behaviours in Chilean college students: A cross-sectional survey
title_sort Happiness and health behaviours in Chilean college students: A cross-sectional survey
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Piqueras, Jose A
Kuhne, Walter
Vera-Villarroel, Pablo
van Straten, Annemieke
Cuijpers, Pim
author Piqueras, Jose A
author_facet Piqueras, Jose A
Kuhne, Walter
Vera-Villarroel, Pablo
van Straten, Annemieke
Cuijpers, Pim
author_role author
author2 Kuhne, Walter
Vera-Villarroel, Pablo
van Straten, Annemieke
Cuijpers, Pim
author2_role author
author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Departamentos de la UMH::Psicología de la Salud
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv CDU::1 - Filosofía y psicología::159.9 - Psicología
topic CDU::1 - Filosofía y psicología::159.9 - Psicología
description Background: Happiness has been associated with a range of favourable health outcomes through two pathways: its relationship with favourable biological responses to stress and with healthy lifestyles and prudent health behaviours. There are a substantial number of cross-cultural studies about happiness, but none of them has studied the association of happiness with perceived stress and health behaviours in Latin American samples. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the association between general happiness and these variables in a Latin American sample. Methods: We conducted a survey to examine the status of 3461 students aged between 17 and 24 years old (mean age = 19.89; SD = 1.73) who attended University of Santiago de Chile during 2009. The healthy behaviours indexes assessed were the frequency of daily physical exercise, fruits/vegetables intake, breakfast and lunch intake, smoking, alcohol and other drugs consumption. We also included the assessment of perceived stress and Body Mass Index. All of them were evaluated using a self-report questionnaire. Results: The univariate and multivariate binary logistic regression analyses showed that being female and younger was related to a higher happiness, as well as that people self-reporting daily physical activity, having lunch and fruits and vegetables each day had a higher likelihood (OR between 1.33 and 1.40) of being classified as “very happy”. Those who informed felt stressed in normal circumstances and during tests situations showed a lower likelihood (0.73 and 0.82, respectively) of being considered “very happy”. Regarding drug consumption, taking tranquilizers under prescription was negative related to “subjective happiness” (OR = 0.62), whereas smoking was positive associated (OR = 1.20). Conclusions: The findings of this study mainly support the relationship between happiness and health outcomes through the two pathways previously mentioned. They also underscore the importance of that some healthy behaviours and person’s cognitive appraisal of stress are integrated into their lifestyle for college students. Additionally, highlight the importance of taking into account these variables in the design of strategies to promote health education in university setting.
publishDate 2011
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2011
2025
2025
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/11000/35878
url https://hdl.handle.net/11000/35878
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-443
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
10
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv BioMed Central
publisher.none.fl_str_mv BioMed Central
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:REDIUMH. Depósito Digital de la UMH
instname:Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche
instname_str Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche
reponame_str REDIUMH. Depósito Digital de la UMH
collection REDIUMH. Depósito Digital de la UMH
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