AN ASSESSMENT OF THE YOUNG ADULTS IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS TOWARDS THEIR HEALTH BEHAVIOURS

1.1 Introduction

Health Behaviors includes medical service usage, compliance with medical regimens, and self-directed health behaviors. In describing health behaviors it is common to distinguish health enhancing from health impairing behaviors. Health impairing behaviors have harmful effects on health or otherwise predispose individuals to disease. Such behaviors include smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and high dietary fat consumption. In contrast, engagement in health enhancing behaviors conveys health benefits or otherwise protects individuals from disease. Such behaviors include exercise, fruit and vegetable consumption, and condom use in response to the threat of sexually transmitted diseases.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Health behaviors have important consequences for both the quality and length of life by influencing disease outcomes. Nevertheless, there is still considerable variation in those individuals who perform these behaviors. Social cognition models provide one approach to understanding the variation in who performs health behaviors. Smoking is the health behavior most closely linked with long-term negative health outcomes. The impact of smoking and tobacco use on health cannot be over emphasized. Cigarette smoking remains a gigantic public health problem and is still regarded as one of the leading preventable causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide (Can et al., 2009; Mpabulungi & Muula, 2004; Salawu et al., 2009; World health Organisation, 2015).

It is well-known that many smokers start before the age of 18 years, however, it is of great interest to know that the increasing trend in smoking prevalence amongst youths and the likelihood that many of these young people who begin to smoke at an early age, will continue to do so throughout adulthood (Adebiyi et al., 2010).

According to Sharif (2012), smoking is the leading health hazards and causes of deaths in all over the world which can be preventable if sufficient steps were taken for the prevention and ban smoking in universities and colleges. Smoking is the single most preventable reason for death worldwide, tobacco utilization result in the death of millions of people every year. And if current patterns continue, the deaths from tobacco will be increase to more than 8 Million if current situation continue by the 2030 with the majority of the tobacco-related morbidity and mortality happening disproportionately in low and middle income countries.

Although tobacco use has declined in many high income countries such as the United States and United Kingdom, it is increasing in many low and middle income countries (Boutayeb & Boutayeb, 2005; Warren, Jones, Eriksen & Asma, 2006) and in current situation, tobacco smoking is by far the most popular form of smoking and is practiced by over one billion people in the majority of all human societies (Akinpelu, 2015). Tobacco is the most common hazardous substance and this is aided by its legally availability, heavy promotion and wide consumption and has been revealed to be problematic including other forms of use other than cigarettes, which is on the rise among adolescents in many countries, and is likely to jeopardize progress in reducing chronic diseases and tobacco-related mortality (CDC, 2010; Warren et al., 2006).

The constant increase in the consumption of tobacco among adolescents is emerging as a complex and multidimensional problem (Soni & Raut, 2012). Melgosa (2006) rightly considers tobacco as a drug with the lowest risk, in the short term but one which takes away health and life from the greatest number of people in the long term. It is estimated that number of deaths due to tobacco will increase from 3 million per year worldwide to 70 million per year by 2025 (Reddy & Arora, 2005; US Department of Health and Human Services, 2012). It has been said that adolescents are especially vulnerable to these effects and may be more likely than adults to develop an addiction to tobacco (Chakraborty, 2009). In addition, it has been predicted that if the pattern currently seen among youth continues, a lifetime of tobacco use would result in the deaths of 250 million children and young people alive today, most of them in developing countries (WHO, 2012).

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to assess the Health Behaviours Young Adults in Tertiary Institutions.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that smoking among youths has been on an increase worldwide (Pomara et al, 2012) with values ranging from 721 million in 1980 to 967 million in 2012 (Marie, 2013). Studies have revealed that there has been a high increase in the prevalence rate of smoking among youth in sub-Saharan Africa (Shafey, Dolwick & Guindon, 2012) and Nigeria precisely (Drope, 2011; Yahya et al., 2010), with statistics showing that youths form over 40% of the Nigerian population and 18% of the youths smoke, identifying youths as a major group involved in smoking over the last two decades (Gboyega et al., 2013).

Smokers' low perception of the negative effects of their smoking behavior on their health also results in many of them being unwilling to quit smoking with most of them expressing a sense of invincibility to the hazards of smoking (Fawibe & Shittu, 2011). Studies have shown that individuals who perceive fewer risks and greater benefits of smoking are more susceptible to initiation (Song et al., 2009). Literatures have shown that perceptions about health risks influence cigarette smoking among youths (Aryal et al., 2013; Mantler, 2013). Further studies have also shown that each day, more than 3,200 people under 18 smoke their first cigarette, and approximately 2,100 youth and young adults become daily smokers.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to assess the Health Behaviours Young Adults in Tertiary Institutions using Abuja Nigeria as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To investigate the difficulties teachers encounter with young adults having health behavioural problems in the area under study;
2. To find out current causes of health behavioural problems among young adults in the area under study; and
3. To identify the ratings of teachers of the seriousness of health behavioural problems of young adults in the area under study.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• What is the difficulties teachers encounter with young adults having health behavioural problems in the area under study?
• What are the current causes of health behavioural problems among young adults in the area under study?
• What are the ratings of teachers of the seriousness of health behavioural problems of young adults in the area under study?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There are no significant challenges teacher encounters with young adults having health behavioural problems in the area under study
• H1: There are significant challenges teacher encounters with young adults having health behavioural problems in the area under study

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1.7 Significance of Study

The study will be beneficial to teachers, headmasters, school administrator, parents, guidance and counseling personnel, psychologist, mental hygienist students and the government. It would identify those Behavioural Problems that can be hamper effective teaching and meaningful learning, thereby it would help the teachers and administrators to utilize the most suitable teaching methods/techniques.

Health behavioural Problems which crop up in childhood will be reduced to the minimum because teachers will be able to curb that in childhood. The child would also develop a sound personality, sound attitude and morals which is one of the goals of primary education in Nigeria (National Policy of Education, 2004). Parents will benefit because, they will be able to identify these behavioural problems in their children and help them to manage these problems. Mental hygienist, guidance counseling will be better informed and it would be a tool for making their work easier.

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Assessment of the Young Adults in Tertiary Institutions Towards their Health Behaviours, Abuja Nigeria.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Operational Definition of Terms

Attitude: Is an expression of favor or disfavor toward a person, place, thing, or event.

Cause: A cause has been defined by the oxford dictionary sixth edition (2000) the cause of something is what makes it happen.