Health Problems among Disciplines at a Regional University in Southern Thailand: A Descriptive Study

Authors

  • Supakorn Sripaew Department of Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla 90110,
  • Chanon Kongkamol Department of Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla 90110,

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31584/jhsmr.2020729

Keywords:

health problems, discipline, regional university

Abstract

Objective: To determine incidence of various health problems among Prince of Songkla University (PSU) students, and its distribution among disciplines.
Material and Methods: A Retrospective study, collecting secondary de-identified hospital records of 45,093 PSU students, over the 6-year period of study; from 1st, January 2012 to 31st, December 2017.
Results: According to data from 45,093 students, there were 8 groups of influential health problems that were shared in approximately 80 percent of all diagnoses. Acute upper respiratory tract infections played the greatest incidence among all disease groups. Apart from that, common health issues found in adolescence consisted of; common skin diseases, traffic accidents, and diseases of the digestive system also played a part as the most common problems. Even if the traffic accidents rate seemed to be overlooked by its number, its incidence rate was 17.41 per 1,000, which was above the provincial rate as well as country rate. Disciplines in the medical group and freshmen group were the highest of patients having most of the common problems. Each health problem incidence rate, which varied within the university campus, seemed to be from the difference of disease burden among disciplines; rather than the ease of facility accessibility.
Conclusion: The collegians experienced wide ranges of common health problems, which were predominated in adolescents, and adults. Medical sciences students and freshmen were the highest number of patients for almost all health issues. Overall, health problems among the collegians probably varied in the campus due to specific characteristics in each disciplines, and differed as to the different context in other universities.

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Published

2020-03-12

How to Cite

1.
Sripaew S, Kongkamol C. Health Problems among Disciplines at a Regional University in Southern Thailand: A Descriptive Study. J Health Sci Med Res [Internet]. 2020 Mar. 12 [cited 2024 Mar. 29];38(2):103-14. Available from: https://he01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/jhsmr/article/view/243935

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Original Article