Summary Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have the potential to impact positively on the health and wellbeing of their staff and students. Using and expanding on the ‘health promoting university’ (HPU) platform within HEIs, this article provides a description of ‘Healthy Trinity’, which is an initiative underway in Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin. First, Healthy Trinity is contextualized in background literature including international and national policy and practice. Second, an overview of Healthy Trinity is provided including its vision and goals. Third, the article describes the steps taken relating to the identification of stakeholders and use of a network and a co-lead model. Within this approach, the article describes a partnership approach whereby responsibilities regarding health and wellbeing are shared by individuals and the institution. Fourth, the design and implementation of Healthy Trinity is discussed by taking a ‘settings approach’, in which the emphasis for change is placed on individual behaviours, environment, policy and organizational culture. Consideration is given to the interplay between intervention, implementation strategy and context for successful systemic implementation. The fifth element presented is the early-stage challenges encountered during implementation, such as the need to secure recurrent funding and the importance of having a direct input to the governance of the University to enable systemic change. The sixth and final component of the article is an outline of Healthy Trinity’s intention to utilize a process evaluation of the early implementation phases of this complex intervention within a settings approach. Potential deliverables and impacts of this HPU initiative are presented and discussed.
Knowledge of student smoking behaviors and attitudes was sought to inform a proposal to implement a smoke-free university campus. This study assessed prevalence of student smoking and quitting behaviors and associated demographic, contextual and attitudinal factors. A cross-sectional design using a convenience sample on a single university site was utilized. Data were collected by anonymous self-administered questionnaires and analyzed using bivariate and multivariable logistic models comparing smokers and non-smokers (Model 1) and daily with occasional smokers Model 2. Of 739 respondents, 19% of students smoked; 12% occasional (non-daily) and 7% daily smokers. Smokers were more likely to be ≥22 years and to allow smoking inside their accommodation (Model 1). They were less likely to agree that tobacco was addictive and to consider those who smoked at parties and weekends to be regular smokers. In Model 2, daily smokers were older and nine times more likely to report increased difficulty in handling stress if they quit smoking. Forty-four percent of all smokers had attempted to quit in the past year, 35% of smokers intended to quit in the next 30 days and 53% in the next six months. Forty percent did not use quitting supports. Occasional rather than daily smoking was more prevalent in university students. Smokers differed from non-smokers in their perception of smoking-related health risks. Increasing age was the best predictor of regular and occasional smoking. Intentions to quit smoking and quit attempts were high among all smokers although use of on-site cessation supports was less than the optimal. These combined factors indicate a need for better targeting of our prevention strategies and the need to promote greater awareness of cessation supports for successful implementation of a smoke-free campus.
BackgroundOccasional smoking is defined as any smoking occurring on a less than daily basis. Social smoking, i.e. smoking primarily in social contexts, is a sub-group of occasional smoking. Data on occasional cigarette smoking and the subset of social smoking among third level students are limited. Objectives(1) To determine prevalence of occasional/social smoking among third level students in an Irish university; (2) to evaluate students' attitudes to occasional/social smoking, including perceived benefits and harm;(3) to explore when students commenced occasional/social smoking, their reasons and continued smoking habits; and (4) to determine any influence of other factors, e.g. alcohol consumption, on occasional/social smoking. MethodsAn anonymous online survey was distributed to undergraduates and postgraduates, using SurveyMonkey. Data were analysed in Microsoft Excel. Results2 3 4 e.Proofing https://eproofing.springer.com/journals_v2/printpage.php?token...
Objectives: The objective of this study was to understand the variables or study habits that inform study in undergraduate and postgraduate students attending Trinity College Dublin. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional anonymous online survey was used to gather data to explore student study habits. Survey 1 was completed by participants in April 2019 and survey 2 was completed by participants in April 2020, during the COVID-19 restrictions. Results: A total of 1557 participants completed survey 1 in 2019, and 1793 participants completed survey 2 in 2020. In both surveys a majority reported using caffeine, library study, sleep pattern adjustment and excercise to aid academic performance. Survey 2 participants reported COVID-19 resulted in increased difficulty studying (91%). In particular loss of structure and routine was negatively impacted by the pandemic (92%), and increased feelings of stress were reported (75%). Conclusions: Our study suggests a potential role of the college environment as a target for the implementation of interventions to promote student learning, healthy study habits and well-being. The global pandemic has resulted in additional challenging demands for universities to serve an essential role in supporting college students study habits.
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