Predictors of diabetes risk perception among college students

Abstract

Objective: To explore the diabetes knowledge and future disease risk perception of college students. Participants: 697 college students were purposefully recruited at a large state university and completed an online survey. Methods: Diabetes knowledge, future disease risk perception, lifestyle, and demographic factors were assessed. Results: The majority of students (56%) reported a family history of diabetes but perceived their diabetes risk as low/moderate (90%). Logistic regression indicated higher knowledge (OR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.01-1.13), age (OR, 1.08; 95% CI, 1.00-1.16), bodymassindex (BMI) (OR, 4.90; 95% CI, 2.33-10.30) and family history of diabetes (OR, 4.30; 95% CI, 1.97-9.40) increased perception of future diabetes risk. Those who self-rated their health as good/excellent and read food labels regularly/often had lower perceived future risk of diabetes. Conclusions: Results highlight the importance of educating college students on diabetes risk factors as well as primary/secondary prevention for reducing diabetes incidence in this age group.

Keywords:

• Diabetes knowledge
• college students
• type 2 diabetes mellitus
• risk factors
• perceived risk

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to Dr. Alfgeir Kristjansson, Associate Professor, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, USA, for his support on the development of the survey tool.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare for this study.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Harvard Dataverse at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/IL48NT.

Additional information

Funding

The authors declare no funding source used for this study.