Health Risk Behaviour Among University Students - Dissertation Example

According to ( Jessor, 1992) the behavior of university students results in risks that fall under four general categories, these are:
• Health
• Social roles
• Personal development outcomes
• Outcomes affecting the preparation for adulthood

1.1. Health outcomes of risky behavior
(Wilson, 1990). Cancer has been rated as one of the most common lifestyle diseases (Shiner and Newburn, 1996). Human behavior and habits are the main causes of cancer today. Cancer is a malignant growth of cells that can occur in any region of the body. Some of the common cancers include lung cancer, prostate, and cervical cancer, and breast cancer among others (Bachman et al, 1981).

Smoking is the leading cause of most cancer occurrences, especially lung cancer worldwide (Gorsuch, R.L. and Butler, 1976). The patient may not even be a smoker but passive smoking can cause the same harmful consequences as smoking a cigarette (Bachman et al, 1981). Lung cancer has a marginal rate of about 17% of a recovery after it has been diagnosed. Most patients do not live beyond five years after diagnosis of the condition. Most smokers confess that they started the habit to fit in with their peers since smoking was considered “cool” (Bachman et al, 1981). From the basic education received in high school and college, students already know the risks they are exposing themselves to but still go on (Warr, 1993).

Another common cancer is colorectal cancer. It is cancer that occurs in the intestine. One of the major causes of this cancer is lack of exercise and bad dieting. This can again be tied back to the feeding habits that university students adopt while in school (Weeks and Laver-Bradbury, 1997). They frequent fast food outlets since they do not have the time to sit down and have proper meals (Weeks, A. and Laver-Bradbury, 1997). The tight schedules of their classes force them to adopt this unhealthy eating habit.

A further and serious repercussion of health risk behavior is a contraction of STDs and STIs (Kelly, 1995). These are mainly spread through unprotected sex. Indulgence in unprotected sex may itself be a consequence of health risk behavior such as drug abuse, which causes a serious lack of judgment from an individual (Kelly, 1995). Some of the drugs are injected into the circulatory system. Sharing needles with an infected person causes all the rest to contract the disease (Kelly, 1995).