Is medical check-up useful for physician among new university students during enrolling time to university? A survey of 640 new university students

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the health problems of the recently enrolled new university students in Celal Bayar University, Manisa, Turkey and to expose whether the information gathered will be useful for the future follow up of the students. Methods: 640 students who were elected by the Students' Selection and Ranking Examination (Öǧrenci Seçme Sinavi-OSS), had been contributed in our study during enrolling time to university; September 2006. Our sample had been constituted of students coming from very different regions, representing the Turkish student population. Results: 42.7% of subjects were male and 57.3% were female. Following prevalence are found for diseases and addictions: Headache 10.8%, allergy 7.3%, anemia 5.8%, gastritis 5.8%, smoking 39.6%, alcohol drinking 2.4%, epilepsy 1.4%, recovered tuberculosis 0.6%. Female students had suffered much more headache, gastritis, anemia than male students (respectively p= 0.000, p= 0.037 and p=0.000). 55.7% of the male students and 27.5% of the female students were smokers. All of the drinkers were male. Headache and gastritis had been found associated with each other (Spearman r=0.259, p=0.000). Headache was found higher in subjects with epilepsy than others (p= 0.020). Conclusion: Physicians of school based health centers, firstly, must understand students' health problems. This study emphasizes the importance of health screening of enrolling students in the registration time and the necessity of school based health centers.