key: cord-0767806-ho3k5wnh
authors: Alarnous, Razan; Albasalah, Aida; Alshawwa, Samar
title: Healthcare Communication Role in the Detection of Unhealthy Behavior in University Students
date: 2021-10-06
journal: J Healthc Eng
DOI: 10.1155/2021/8098963
sha: 5dfd61b7b9c794e34a901339f15da52abb730f28
doc_id: 767806
cord_uid: ho3k5wnh

The current study aims to identify unhealthy behaviors among university students, establish means of detection of unhealthy behavior, identify obstacles to digital volunteering, and explore the relationship between volunteer preferred style of volunteering and the obstacles to volunteering. Data for the study was gathered by administering an unstructured, anonymous questionnaire to 207 female university students and staff. The survey design included questions about sociodemographic characteristics, views on different facets of volunteering, unhealthy behaviors, and correlation between volunteering and unhealthy behaviors. The results revealed unhealthy behavior detected by the respondents (51.7%). Twenty-eight (13.5%) of the 207 respondents reported using social media in detecting women with offending behavior. The value of Pearson's R is 0.245; thus, it is considered as weak or no correlation. There is hence no correlation between how respondents preferred volunteer work and the obstacle to volunteering. There is not much difference in the obstacles to volunteering faced by respondents despite their preferred style of volunteering. The findings reveal that digital volunteering effectively gains ground in detecting and managing unhealthy behaviors among university students. Much more could be achieved through digital volunteering if more awareness is created and volunteering programs are designed to be more interesting and less time-consuming to allow more students to participate.

e outlook of volunteering is gradually changing in the twenty-first century in manners that bring significant problems and opportunities for managing the disaster. Particularly, shifts in the pattern of paid jobs, values and lifestyles, and the latest technology have resulted in a decrease in "conventional," high-commitment, long-term volunteering and an increase in more vast, flexible and periodic patterns of volunteering. According to [1, 2] , "the commonest sources of information about healthy behaviors for university students are the media [3, 4] and social networks." Followed by these sources of information were the World Health Organization, television, the Ministry of Health, friends, and the Internet [1, 2] . is facet reveals the significance of the Internet in conducting campaigns on health education targeted at students of higher education [3, 5] , namely the various national websites [6] and international health authorities [7] . Certified announcements published by governments [2] were also part of the chief sources of information for university students.

Rising adulthood as the phase of life to which students of higher education belong matches a phase of personality development and education in the corporal, mental, family, sexual, emotional, and communal domains [8] . Nevertheless, scientific evidence shows an elevated occurrence of unhealthy behaviors among students of universities [9] who tend to persevere all through life and have a significant enduring impact on their health and total well-being [10] . Furthermore, students of the university should be considered emerging advancement agents, hinged on the idea that they have advantage knowledge owing to their educational background and, as a result, possess the ability to manipulate a population's health. is can be exercised either via their personal decisions, via theoretical prospective vocations, which entail responsibilities in creating health guidelines or decision-making procedures about them [11] [12] [13] . ese rising adults are liable for opening a variety of precautionary options to the public based on communication of knowledge and the implementation of preventive behaviors regarding possible communicable diseases in this respect.

Digital volunteering offers immense potentials for disaster management in the aspect of disaster announcement and challenges and risks [14, 15] . Major challenges arise from strains between the command-control tradition in emergency management and the very flat and autoorganizing character of several digital volunteering. Research points out that command-control configurations "do not easily adapt to the expanding data-generating and -seeking activities by the public" [16] . Certainly, digital volunteering forms a prospective force for decentralizing and dispensing influence within emergency management. It entails not merely a shift in technology but as well a course of quick delegation of control. With enormously few obstacles to access, several new applicants are emerging in the fields of emergency and disaster response [17] .

Latest technologies have therefore opened up "virtual spaces" for volunteer activism and participation that give an authority podium for people "to make their voices heard, to coordinate activities across the globe and to mobilize public opinion" [18] . From the perspective of disaster, digital volunteers are able to generate and use the virtual spaces as podiums to manage unofficial rejoinders that may or may not be incorporated with and corresponding to the official emergency management system. e enormous impact of novel communications technology is another revolution that has extensive inferences because unofficial, postdisaster volunteering comes about, and incontestably all disaster volunteering. e United Nations Volunteer program states that "technological developments are opening up spaces for people to volunteer in ways that have no parallel in history" [19] . Electronic or digital volunteering "has eliminated the need for volunteerism to be tied to definite times and locations. us, it greatly increases the freedom and flexibility of volunteer engagement and complements the outreach and impact of volunteers serving in situ" [19] . e burst in mobile technology and social media, in particular, has lowered the information and communication impediments to partaking in disaster response and recovery [17] . erefore, it has facilitated development in "digitally enabled volunteering" due to disasters that occur both digitally and physically, or, as is frequently the case, in interaction [20, 21] . Meier [22] and Zook et al. [23] stated that "the trend of digital volunteering, in particular, has earned noteworthy research Volunteer work to reduce offending behavior finds solutions to community problems e fourth axis: reasons for participation and assistance mechanism to detect the offending behavior in the university * those who actually participated 55 e person who carried out the offending behavior contacted strangers through social networks to help her in the implementation of the offending behavior and I discovered that attention since the immense response of digital volunteers to the 2010 Haiti earthquake." is was a turning point event that paved the way for "digital humanitarianism" that is global in reach [17] . To a large extent, online volunteers have been reported to be more successful than conventional government organizations at organizing, collating, managing, and disseminating the "data deluge" that is prompted by disasters in the Internet age in close to real-time to increase conditional awareness [24] . According to Haworth and Bruce, a key strength of digital volunteering arises from the huge capability of the Internet to facilitate crowdsourcing, mostly for volunteered geographic information (VGI). VGI "involves the sharing and mapping of spatial data through voluntary information gathered by the general public" [15] , and it is especially influential for disaster circumstances. is is progressively more recognized by well-known actors. Conspicuously, the Information Services Section (ISS) of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) started a digital volunteering network-e Standby Taskforce-to create live, crowdsourced crisis maps for the 2011 Libyan revolution that was afterward used by humanitarian organizations to coordinate their relief activities [22] . Unhealthy behavior refers to any action an individual takes with intensity or at a rate that raises the risk of injury or disease [25] . It might sum up into a risky way of life that influences emotions, cognitive performance, and the general value of life. A great deal of the sicknesses and deaths result from individuals' behavioral styles, polluted environment, poverty, or psychological affairs [26] . A research carried out by Poortinga established that many university students binge drink, smoke tobacco, do not eat sufficient fruits and vegetables, and do not exercise enough. e study in [27] identified five groups of behaviors that have been found consistently to associate with increased sickness and death. e list includes "low levels of physical activity and high levels of sedentary activity; eating a diet high in fat and sodium, calories, and low in nutrients; smoking cigarettes; substances abuse including alcohol, illicit and remedy drugs, and risky sexual behaviors" [28] . Latest advancements in brain research have established a precarious connection between youths and unhealthy behaviors, expounding the reality that adolescence is the significant stage of risk for both unhealthy behaviors and their outcome. Adults are less susceptible to unhealthy behavior than adolescents because the sections of the brain that control decision-making, judgment, impulse control, and emotion are not yet completely developed in adolescents. us, teens are more likely to take risks than adults, including engaging in dangerous behaviors and experimenting with drug abuse [29] . e chances of undertaking several unhealthy behaviors increase over the process of growth, principally during the teenage years. rough sexual risk, physical risks, and experimentation with substances, some adolescents attain unhealthy behaviors and peers that endure and dampen the cultivation of other self-regulatory attitudes. Notwithstanding efforts made towards health promotion, young adults continue to [30] . It is essential to understand unhealthy behaviors among youths, as early detection of such behaviors and their subsequent modifications can significantly improve every aspect of health and reduce the risk of chronic diseases later in life [31] . e objective of the study is to identify unhealthy behavior among university students; establish the means of detection of unhealthy behavior; identify the obstacles to volunteering; obtaining the relationship between volunteer preferred style of volunteering and the obstacles to volunteering.

In order to gather data for the study, an anonymous structured questionnaire was administered to both students and staff at Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 207 validly filled questionnaires were retrieved. e respondents were all females within the age range from 18 to more than 35 years. e questionnaire for this study was developed by the authors (Table 1) . It was in the Arabic language and had never been used before. e data was collected by using the self-administered questionnaire (Table 1) . It consists of two sections as follows.

Section 1 included sociodemographic characteristics and properties of participants such as age and gender-views on different facets of volunteering, unhealthy behaviors, and correlation between volunteering and unhealthy behaviors.

Section 2 consists of four axes. e first axis aims to explore the importance of volunteer work from the point of view of the volunteer.

is part of the questionnaire contained 17 questions using a Likert scale of 5 points; totally agree � 5, agree � 4, neutral � 3, disagree � 2, and totally disagree � 1. Second axis: is axis aimed to measure the reasons for the existence of the phenomenon of offending behaviors on campus from the point of view of general volunteers. It was composed of 15 questions using a Likert scale of 5 points (totally agree � 5, agree � 4, neutral � 3, disagree � 2, and totally disagree � 1). e third axis focused on directing volunteer efforts of the students, professors, and human resources at the university for early detection of offending behavior in the university and establish a mechanism to reduce it. is part of the questionnaire contains 22 questions using a Likert scale totally agree � 5, agree � 4, neutral � 3, disagree � 2, and totally disagree � 1). e fourth axis aimed to elaborate reasons for participation and assistance mechanisms to detect the offending behavior in the university.

is part of the questionnaire contains 16 questions using a Likert scale totally agree � 5, agree � 4, neutral � 3, disagree � 2, and totally disagree � 1). e questionnaire has been piloted to ensure face validity and has resolved both improvements in terminology and ease of use. However, the data collected from the pilot study were not involved in the final analysis. In terms of reliability, a variety of factors have been taken into account when planning this analysis to reduce the risk to reliability. e data gathered was subjected to Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 2020. Descriptive statistics were used to report the percentages for definite variables, while mean values with standard deviations were used to report continuous variables. Missing data were omitted on the basis of analysis-by-analysis and valid percentages were reported. e data was also subjected to correlation analysis to determine the relationship between the volunteer preferred style of volunteering and the obstacles to volunteering.

e demographic characteristics of the respondents revealed ages ranging from 18 years to above 35 years. It is not surprising that the marital status of most (92.8%) of the respondents was single as the sample population comprised mainly students (Table 2 .

Regarding the source of income of the respondents, most (42%) of the respondents had their source of income from university rewards; this is followed by 25.1% of the respondents whose source of personal income was from all of Table 3 . With regard to the mode of volunteering, it seems that online life affected the expected voluntary behaviors. Results showed that 30% of the respondents prefer to volunteer through groups. is percentage was expected to be more, but it was less due to the online life period since students cannot meet and work in groups. e results also show that most of the respondents nowadays prefer electronic volunteering due to the limitation of gathering and outdoor activities ( Table 4 ).

Lack of time constitutes the greatest obstacle to digital volunteering, representing almost half (48.8%) of the entire data, while lack of conviction/interest/time constitutes the least obstacle (0.5%). Other factors that hinder digital volunteering, as shown by the table, include lack of time + weak interest (15.0%), lack of awareness, and culture (7.2%) ( Table 5) .

University administration has a positive role in the development of volunteering work. It is also observed that volunteering positively affects university volunteers.

is is seen as most of the respondents agreed that volunteering enabled them to develop enough interest to strive to continually update their information as development in the field persists. Most respondents reported enhanced communication skills; other positive roles CK � my exposure to blackmail by those who do the unhealthy behavior and my rejection of the behavior prompted me to participate in monitoring the offending behavior. CL � my ability to hack the websites and influencing others helped me to monitor unhealthy behavior. CM � advertisement and invitations in the university led me to participate in reducing unhealthy behavior. CN � my friends volunteer in reducing unhealthy behavior, encouraging me with their experiences, to experiment with monitoring the unhealthy behavior. CO � my values and principles of religion made me motivated to participate in the monitoring of unhealthy behavior for the satisfaction of God. CP � my knowledge of the types of offending behavior and harm to the individual and society encouraged me to fight. CR � peer indifference to the matter, out of fear, irresponsibility, or distance from problems, was frustrating me on the one hand and encouraging me, on the other hand, to uncover unhealthy behavior and follow-up and continue doing so. CT �gy sense of security in terms of ease of tracking and lack of regulatory laws made it easy for me to contribute to uncovering the offending behavior. CU � guidance and counseling by professors, clubs, volunteers, and the Community Service Agency raised my spirits, so I made the unhealthy behavior and detection of it my priority. 8 Journal of Healthcare Engineering include improved ability to tackle problems and development of basic skills in the use of technology, as shown in Table 6 . From Table 7 , only 28 (13.5%) of the 207 respondents reported using social media in detecting women with offending behavior.

When considering the most widely used methods of communication, Twitter is the most widely used method of communication as 50% (14) of the respondents (28) make use of it.

is was followed by both Twitter and Instagram and Twitter, Snapchat, Phone calls, YouTube, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and Telegram, which were utilized by 3 (1.4%) of the respondents each. 2 (1%) of the respondents use Snapchat as a medium of communication, another 2 (%) of them utilize Twitter coupled with surfing the web; 1 (0.5%) of the respondents browse the web only as a means of communication (Table 8 and Figure 1 . Table 9 shows the mean and standard deviation of reasons for participation and assistance mechanism to detect unhealthy behavior in the university. Table 10 shows that 37 (17.9%) of the respondents indicated that Attack on Others and Properties is the most prevalent unhealthy behavior found among university students; this is followed by bullying/insults/verbal abuse and bullying (13.5%) and (8.7%), respectively.

Most of the respondents (70) who do volunteer work do it in the Princess Nourah University and have revealed to have helped detect unhealthy behavior among women. Others carry out their volunteering work at Community development association (11) , charitable association (5), outside the university (10), and both within and outside the university (21) ; the only respondent who carries out volunteer work electronically has not helped to detect any kind of unhealthy behavior (Table 11) .

As shown in Table 12 , the value of Pearson's R is 0.245; thus, it is considered a weak or no correlation. ere is hence no correlation between how respondents preferred volunteer work and the obstacle to volunteering.

ere is not much difference in the obstacles to volunteering faced by respondents despite their preferred style of volunteering.

With regard to the correlation between the four themes/axes of this study, we have the following. e first axis: the importance of volunteer work from the point of view of the volunteer; the second axis: the reasons for the existence of the phenomenon of offending behaviors on campus from the point of view generally volunteers; third axis: directing Volunteer efforts of the students, professors and human resources at the university for early detection of offending behavior in the university and establish a mechanism to reduce it; the fourth axis: reasons for participation and assistance mechanism to detect the offending behavior in the university by those who actually participated.

From Table 13 , the correlation between the first and second axis is 0.139 indicating a weak relationship between the importance of volunteer work from the point of view of the volunteer and the reasons for the existence of the phenomenon of offending behaviors on campus from the point of view generally volunteers. e Sig. (2-tailed) is 0.045, indicating that there is no statistically significant correlation between the two variables. e correlation between the first and third axis and the first and fourth axis is 0.431 and 0.369, respectively, also indicating that there is no correlation between each pair of variables. Of all the variable pairs represented in the above table, there is only a moderate correlation between the third and fourth axis, thus indicating that there is a relationship between the two variables.

is study was of clearly stated objectives. e features of the respondents were well represented; randomized sampling was also utilized; since the sample profile is composed of students, this enables easy access and low cost for data collection. On the other hand, a limited number of previous studies related to this topic was reported.

As comparing this study with other previously reported studies, the results of this study showed that youth and young adults form a greater part of volunteering. is is not surprising as the Arab News reported that "the majority of Saudi youth would be more than willing to get involved in volunteer work, according to a survey" [32] . Volunteer work span across all work ages, university education level, occupation, and marital status. It is revealed that most volunteers prefer volunteering in groups.

Contrary to Sills' classic study on volunteering [33] , people not only engage in volunteer work for altruistic motives only but also for other beneficial rewards such as learning new skills and self-development among others [34] . A major obstacle to volunteering is the lack of time (48.8%). Of the unhealthy behavior revealed in this study, attacks on others and properties were the most frequent (17.9%). is was followed by bullying, insults, and verbal abuse (13.5%). Bullying is obviously among the top list of unhealthy behavior as it takes several forms [35, 36] , from cyber-bullying to face-to-face bullying, insults, and verbal abuses.

On a global scale, there is rising anticipation that volunteers will cover a bigger responsibility in disaster management and disaster risk diminution in time to come than it has in the past. is is propelled by an increasing global focus on creating "resilience to disasters through a "bottom-up" process in the form of volunteer initiatives rooted in the community" [19] . Lately, this focus was reemphasized in the 2015-2030 Sendai agenda for Disaster Risk Reduction, arrogated by the United Nation's March 2015 General Assembly [37] . e guideline demanded that "responsibilities be shared" covering all stakeholders and sectors of society and vociferates "an all-of-society engagement and partnership." Also, it renders an extensive catalog of proceedings for "civil society, volunteers, organized voluntary work organizations and community-based organizations" that states should encourage.

Nevertheless, the outlook of volunteering is gradually shifting in the twenty-first century in manners that bring significant problems and chances for disaster management. Particularly, shifts in the pattern of paid jobs, values, and lifestyles, and the latest technology has resulted in a reduction in "traditional," time-consuming, high dedication volunteering and an increase in more vast, flexible and periodic patterns of volunteering [38] . Considerably, "volunteer strategies in the emergency management sector still depend profoundly on the customary model of volunteering" [39, 40] .

Volunteering definitions are changing, alongside the act of volunteering [41, 42] . In Australia, the highest national body lately arrogated a more comprehensive definition: "Volunteering is time willingly given for the common good and without financial gain" [43, 44] . e recent definition cuts across a greatly wider array of budding and less conventional kinds of volunteering juxtaposed to the past, including unofficial and periodic volunteering, group volunteering where a member of staff time is contributed, electronic or online volunteering, and activism. is kind of shift towards more general knowledge of what makes up volunteering in the contemporary perspective is accompanied by the likelihood of higher acknowledgment, legitimacy, and protection for the greater variety of volunteering that has constantly taken place in disaster situations. However, greater recognition also brings the prospective for more government mediation, which stressed has tendency to influence the drives and developing behaviors that inspire unofficial volunteering negatively [42] . Results of the study were manifested earlier in a Research Square, preprint document [45] , showing that the majority of Saudi youth are more willing to be involved in volunteer work.

e findings reveal that digital volunteering is effectively gaining ground in the detection and management of unhealthy behaviors among university students. Much more could be achieved through digital volunteering if more awareness is created and volunteering programs are designed to be more interesting and less time-consuming to allow more students to participate. Based on these facts, this study hereby makes the following recommendations: more opportunities should be given to students to participate in volunteering work.

ere should be proper awareness and orientation about new and existing volunteering work. Students should be encouraged to participate in digital volunteering. Students should be afforded opportunities to volunteer outside the university and access the diversity of volunteer opportunities.

ere should be partnerships among the university, institutions, and volunteer associations, which will give another character to female students and develop extracurricular thinking skills for female volunteers, as there are specializations that pay more attention to this aspect, as is the case in the disciplines of social service, psychology and others. Volunteer programs should be designed to be less time-consuming and more interesting to students while serving the purpose for which there were created.

Any raw data or materials used in the preparation of this manuscript are available upon reasonable request to Dr. Samar Alshawwa (szalshawwa@pnu.edu.sa).

Ethical approval was obtained for this study from the International Review Board (IRB) in Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with IRB Log Number 20-0113. e IRB has determined that the proposed project poses no more than minimal risk to the participants. erefore, the proposal has been deemed exempt from IRB review.

Participants were informed that all the information derived from the research tool "the questionnaire" will be dealt with in the strictest confidence and will only be used for scientific research purposes only. Anonymity and confidentiality were explained to participants. Participants were identified with codes to ensure anonymity. Questions that could cause any form of psychological trauma on participants were avoided.

AA is the primary author of the manuscript. An earlier preprint preliminary version of this manuscript has been presented in Research Square according to the following link: https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-729709/v1 [45] .

COVID-19 knowledge, attitude and practice among medical and non-medical university students in Jordan

Opinions from the epicenter: an online survey of university students in Wuhan amidst the COVID-19 outbreak1

Exploring knowledge and attitude toward middle east respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) among university health colleges' students, Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study

How young Chinese depend on the media during public health crises? A comparative perspective

Knowledge and attitude of Al-Ghad college students towards corona virus infection

COVID-19

Coronavirus overview

Emerging adulthood: a theory of development from the late teens through the twenties

Department of Health and Human Services

Risky adolescent behavior: an evolutionary perspective

Promoting health in schools and universities," in Health Promotion Programs: From eory to Practice

Healthy universities-time for action: a qualitative research study exploring the potential for a national programme

e health of students in institutes of higher education: an important and neglected public health problem

Crisis communication

A review of volunteered geographic information for disaster management

Citizen communications in crisis: anticipating a future of ICT-supported public participation

Humanitarianism in the Network Age, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

State of the World's Volunteerism: Transforming Governance, United Nations Volunteers Programme

State of the World's Volunteerism: Universal Values for Global Wellbeing, United Nations Volunteers Programme

Combining real and virtual volunteers through social media. Paper presented at the ISCRAM

Connecting Emergency Management Organizations with Digitally Enabled Emergent Volunteering: Literature Review and Best Practices

Crisis mapping in action: how open source software and global volunteer networks are changing the world, one map at a time

Volunteered geographic information and crowdsourcing disaster relief: a case study of the Haitian earthquake

Crisis communication in natural disasters: the Queensland floods and Christchurch earthquakes

Does physical activity modify the risk of obesity for type 2 diabetes: a review of epidemiological data

Television viewing and risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality: a metaanalysis

e prevalence and clustering of four major lifestyle risk factors in an English adult population

e preventable causes of death in the United States: comparative risk assessment of dietary, lifestyle, and metabolic risk factors

Funded by: Legacy Conrad N, Hilton Foundation Carnegie Corporation of New York Michael Alan Rosen Foundation, e National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University

Rethinking our approach to physical activity

Alcohol consumption and mortality in patients with cardiovascular disease: a meta-analysis

Majority of saudi youth 'highly interested' in volunteer work

Volunteer work and Its reward

What we know about bullying among university students

Bullying Among University Students

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction

Collective and reflexive styles of volunteering: a sociological modernization perspective

National Emergency Management Volunteer Action Plan, AttorneyGeneral's Department

A potential crisis in wildfire emergency response capability? Australia's volunteer firefighters

Navigating theories of volunteering: a hybrid map for a complex phenomenon

A review of informal volunteerism in emergencies and disasters: definition, opportunities and challenges

Volunteering Australia Project, e Review of the Definition of Volunteering, Volunteering Australia

Promoting healthy lifestyle in Chinese college students: evaluation of a social media-based intervention applying the RE-AIM framework

Activating the Role of Digital Volunteering in Early Detection of Unhealthy Behavior on University Campus in the Era of Covid 19 Crisis

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

All authors were responsible for the initiation, conceptualization, and leadership of the guideline development process. AA and SA were responsible for the respondent's survey. RA and SA were responsible for the data statistical analysis and interpretation of results. All coauthors were responsible for writing, reviewing, and revising the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript, participated in the study and questioner design, data analysis, drafted the manuscript, and approved it before submission.