SynthesisJournal of public health (Oxford, England)2023
Prevalence of health risk behaviours related to non-communicable diseases amongst South African university students: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Journal of public health (Oxford, England), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Non-Communicable Disease, Metabolic and Lifestyle Risk Factor Profiles in South African University Students: A Latent Class Analysis.Public health challenges · 2026Article
- Prevalence and determinants of sedentary behavior among university students in Yemen: a national multicenter cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- The effects of peer health education on alcohol consumption behaviour among university students in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Designing Artificial Intelligence-Powered Health Care Assistants to Reach Vulnerable Populations: A Discrete Choice Experiment Among South African University Students.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Digital health · 2025Article
- How Healthy Are Our Students Really? Lifestyle-Related Health Risk Behaviour Patterns in Student Athletes and Nonathlete Students.Translational sports medicine · 2025Article
- Risk factors associated with non-communicable diseases among government employees in Nepal: insights from a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEngagement in risk behaviours adopted during university continues after graduation, increasing the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This systematic review aimed to investigate the prevalence of NCD risk behaviours amongst South African university students.
methodsPubMed and Scopus databases were searched (January 1990-April 2022) for studies investigating alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, inadequate consumption of fruits and vegetables and physical inactivity. Study qualities were assessed with the Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal and levels of evidence checklists. An overall prevalence percentage was obtained for each risk behaviour.
resultsA total of 50 studies (n = 26 624 students) were included. A range of 44.8-75.0% of students consumed inadequate servings of fruits and vegetables. Just over 54% consumed alcohol (95% confidence intervals [95%CI]:54.0-55.5%). A significantly higher percentage of males (44.2%) than females (25.8%) drank heavily (P < 0.001). Approximately one-third (34.8%, 95%CI:33.4-36.3%) were sedentary and 39.0% (95%CI:37.5-40.4%) were insufficiently active. Almost one-fifth (17.9%, 95%CI:17.3-18.5%) smoked cigarettes, being significantly more prevalent amongst males (21.8%) than females (13.5%) (P < 0.001). A total of 10% smoked 1-10 cigarettes/day and 1.2% smoked >10 cigarettes/day.
conclusionHigh percentages of South African students eat inadequate servings of fruits and vegetables, consume alcohol are physically inactive and smoke cigarettes. South African universities should implement screening measures and health campaigns.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.