Mental health status of students attending tertiary institutions in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

National health policies that take into cognizance the interventions against the menace of students' ill health in Nigeria are limited. This study investigated the health status of students in tertiary institutions in Bayelsa State. A descriptive study design was adopted to randomly select four tertiary institutions out of six. Two hundred students were randomly selected from the four schools; fifty from each school. Structured questionnaires containing symptoms-specific ill health were distributed to the selected students. One hundred and fifty-five questionnaires used for the analyses were retrieved. Thirty six specific health symptoms perceived by the students were classified following WHO standard. Out of 561 students-symptoms, 35.6% were mental health while 34.6% were infectious. More female (66.53%) than male (60.14%) showed mental health symptoms. The differences were not significant (P>0.05). Students who had lived in urban location had more mental than those that resided in rural location. The differences were significant (P<0.05). The symptoms decreases as age increased. 60.1% of the students developed these health challenges as they got admitted into schools while 39.9% of the students had the problem at home before admitted to the school. The symptoms of the student's mental health increased as parents' income improved. The implication of these results is a cause for prompt public health intervention

The nominal group process in the identification of the health interest of Ethiopian secondary school students

The health interest of 114 Ethiopian students and 28 teachers in a secondary school in an Ethiopian town was studied by nominal group process. Accordingly; the leading topics of interest to the students were mental health; endemic infectious diseases; sexually transmitted diseases; skin diseases and cancer. Contrary to their pupils; teachers ranked liver diseases and endemic infectious diseases as their priority of health interest; but ranked mental health lowest. Gender differences in the choice of health topics were apparent among the students. To a certain extent; the health concerns of the students reflect the health problems prevalent in their community. As a technique; the study confirms the utility of the nominal group process institutions where simple and rapid methods of identification of health interest are sought