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news
Health
concerns arise from survey
By Danielle Grossman
On-line Forty-Niner
Though females
account for about 60 percent of the Cal State Long Beach student
population, the Student Health Center does not have a center
specifically for women's health.
A 2000 survey conducted
by the CSULB Student Health Service Health Resource Center,
"Student's Health Status and Health Risk Behaviors at
California State University, Long Beach," established
a desire among students for a men's health program. The program
is designed to increase preventive health among males.
However, no specific
women's health program is available.
"Women think
about preventive health and men traditionally do not,"
said Renee Twigg, director of Student Health Services.
Dr. Ming-Yu Cheng,
director of the Health Resource Center, insists that though
there is not a program titled "Women's Health,"
all other programs available through the center are available
to women.
Those programs
include the Sexual Health Awareness Workshop, HIV Testing
and Counseling, Nutrition Counseling, and Alcohol, Tobacco,
& Other Drug Use Prevention Workshop. Though Cheng said
these programs target women and workshops are open to everyone,
the men's health workshop remains closed to women.
Are women really
practicing "preventive health?"
According to Cheng,
women generally practice preventive health by going in for
checkups before problems arise. Generally, men don't practice
preventive health because they wait until symptoms get serious
before seeing a doctor.
However, of the
female sample taken in the 2000 student health assessment
survey, 33.9 percent have never had a Pap smear. And, another
5 percent didn't know or weren't sure if they have had one.
According to the
University of Iowa's Healthcare virtual hospital Web site,
the Pap smear is a test that should be done annually starting
from the ages of 18 to 21, or when a female becomes sexually
active, whichever comes first. The test tests for cervical
cancer or abnormal cells, and even STDs.
In addition, 36.5
percent of female students in the survey have never done a
breast self-exam.
Is there really
a need for a men's health program?
The men's health
workshop is almost identical to the Sexual Health Awareness
Workshop that both sexes can attend and women seeking birth
control are required to attend.
According to Yumi
Lee, a health education and research assistant for the Health
Resource Center, the student participating in SHAW comes in
and receives a health education lesson about sexually transmitted
diseases, self-exams for breast and testicular cancer, and
birth control methods.
The student then
schedules an appointment to have free blood and urine tests
done with a doctor. Women can also have a Pap smear done for
a small fee, but HIV and STD testing is free to all students.
Results are later discussed with the doctor along with any
other concerns the student may have.
The one minor difference
in the two workshops is that men are given a questionnaire
in the men's health workshop that asks them questions about
their health practices and concerns. Lee said that as of now,
females are not given a questionnaire.
Lee would not provide
a copy of the questionnaire.
When asked about
the questionnaire gender bias, Twigg said women are given
a similar questionnaire during the Sexual Health Awareness
Workshop.
However, SHAW attendees
were only asked about their medical history, not about their
health behaviors, risks or concerns.
Additionally, information
from the Student Health Resource Center Web site does not
offer women and men the same information. The Web site offers
a "Men's Health" link, but does not offer a "Women's
Health" link.
The "Men's
Health" link has subcategories for nutrition, muscular
strength, depression, prostate cancer, testicular cancer,
testicular self-exam, and impotence. There is a difference
in information of the "Nutrition and Weight" link
from the information under the "Men's Health" link.
Also, there is
no main link for exercise where females might get information
similar to what men receive under the muscular strength category.
There are main
links for "Depression" and "Cancer," which
have similar information to the categories under the "Men's
Health" link. These links also include information on
breast cancer and self-exams.
However, there
is no main link that discusses information related to the
male subcategory of impotence, which would be equivalent to
lowered libido in females.
Is the survey an
accurate measure of the students' health status and risk behaviors?
A need for a men's
health program exists since women are more likely to utilize
health services, according to Twigg. The fall 2000 survey
was conducted to further assess this need among the students.
In addition, Twigg
said the survey was conducted to learn students' health behaviors
and practices, and it was the first student survey ever done
in the 53-year history of the school.
"I came [to
Student Health Services] in 1997," Twigg said. "I
don't know why there wasn't a survey done before."
Instead of relying
on national statistics, Twigg said she wanted data directly
from the CSULB campus.
"We wanted
to know more about our own students," Twigg said.
Of the approximately
850 to 900 students that took the survey, 533 students in
the sample were women. (((which is about 3 percent of the
approximately 19,200 female population on campus.)))
Ethnicity was also
broken down in the results of the study. Of the categories
of women who took the survey, there were approximately 27
African Americans, one American Indian/Alaskan, 111 Asian/Asian-Americans,
221 Caucasians, 53 Hispanics, 43 Mexican-American/Chicanos,
15 Pacific Islanders, and 62 in the other category.
One of the survey
questions asked how many drinks a week on average the student
consumed in the past 30 days. Of the 498 women who answered
the question, 43.2 percent said they consumed no drinks in
the past 30 days.
What about binge
drinking? Binge drinking, defined as five or more drinks in
a row for men and four or more drinks in a row for women,
was reported as a behavior practiced among 44 percent of U.S.
college students, according to an analysis done by the Harvard
School of Public Health. The analysis, published by the Higher
Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention, used
statistics from a national survey conducted on 17,600 students
at 140 different four-year colleges and universities.
Though the study
asked how many drinks a student consumes, it does not ask
how many drinks are consumed in one sitting, which is the
definition of binge drinking.
Another question
asks the student's opinion on alcohol consumption on everything
from "is it an ice breaker" to "is it a facilitator
of male/female bonding," but does not ask why that particular
individual chooses to drink, including the possibility that
students may drink just to get drunk.
Another question
asks what method was used to prevent pregnancy the last time
a student had sexual intercourse, but it does not ask if these
methods are being used regularly.
Are students using
the center to address their health concerns?
Twigg said that
the health concerns of the students are assessed through the
questions in the survey and the analysis of the data, even
though there are no direct questions asking about specific
concerns. In addition, specific health concerns can be discussed
with a doctor.
In the study, 78 percent of the female students who
wanted to quit smoking said they would not want to visit the
Health Resource Center to discuss the subject with a doctor.
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