Running head: RISKS OF STRESS ON A COLLEGE STUDENT

Risks of Stress on a College Student

Lindsay Johnson
Ferris State University

Health Assessment and Risk Reduction

RISKS OF STRESS ON A COLLEGE STUDENT

Healthy decisions seem to be involved in everyones daily routines. According

to Brian Wansink, the Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, humans make at
least 200 different food decision per day (Buczynski, 2015). It is easier to make time
for family and screen time than go to the gym, easier to buy fast food than to
prepare a homemade meal satisfying the required servings needed daily, and easier
to find the negative side of things than look at the positive. In order to figure out
how to live a healthier lifestyle, it is imperative to know what decisions are poor in
the first place. Aside from talking to a physician there are ways for individuals to
teach themselves. The Real Age Test is a free online questionnaire that asks
questions and based on answers compares an individuals real age to their overall
health age. Once the questionnaire is completed, the individual has access to four
categories, health, feelings, diet and exercise, where they can see what they are
doing that makes them younger and what makes them older. This paper will look
individually at a persons personal example of the Real Age test, wellness diagnoses
and how they relate, and ways that this particular person can work on improving
their daily health decisions.
Positive Health Practices
AC is a 20-year-old female full time nursing student. As shown in Appendix A,
AC presents with a health age of 16 years old, 4.7 years younger than her true
chronological age. After reviewing ACs test results, she has an exceptional amount
of healthy lifestyle practices that contribute to keeping her at such a young health
age. AC, fortunately, has a strong and reliable social support network. According to
Roizen and Oz, this support system acts as a cushion against stress, taming
inflammation, making your blood less likely to clot when youre tense and lowering
your risk of a heart attack (2013). Another positive lifestyle decision that AC

RISKS OF STRESS ON A COLLEGE STUDENT

possesses is that she makes healthy food choices, she frequently eats fruits and
always has a healthy morning meal before starting her day. Among the many other
positive healthy lifestyle choices AC makes, the Real Age test also highlighted her
sleep schedule, waist size, and her knowledge of her sense of purpose.
Health Issues
Although AC makes many exceptional health choices, she does have areas
where she could improve as well. ACs Real Age test presents areas where she could
improve including: being safer in the sun; broadening her food intake by including
more vegetables and eating less junk food and red meat; and finally by learning to
manage her stress effectively. (Roizen and Oz, 2013).
While AC likes to enjoy the sun exposure for relaxation and purposes of
maintaining her Vitamin D levels, its important to know the risks of spending too
much time in the sun without protection. The knowledge of appropriate use of
sunscreen is beneficial to skin protection. Most people do not use sunscreen
appropriately, as people usually only apply 25% to 50% of the amount of sunscreen
needed to be effective (Jansen et al, 2013).
Sun exposure is detrimental to ACs health age, however, her eating habits
are effecting her negatively as well. AC presents difficulty choosing vegetables
instead of junk food and red meat. According to Roizen and Oz, vegetables benefit
an individuals heart, immune system, memory function, and more; whereas, junk
food contributes to aging of arteries and immune system, leading to heart attacks,
strokes and memory loss (2013). AC also eats too much red meat, this increases
ACs risk for heart disease, cancer and diabetes because of the saturated fat that is
present in the meat (Roizen and Oz, 2013).

RISKS OF STRESS ON A COLLEGE STUDENT

Perhaps ACs junk food habits relate to the stress she is experiencing. Stress
affects humans in a holistic way by potentially ruining sleep, weakening an
individuals immune system, causing weight gain, and causing individuals to age
faster (Roizen and Oz, 2013). AC is not alone as a college student experiencing
stress, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America did a survey in 2008
revealing that 80% of college students say they frequently experience daily stress
(2010). The following section will discuss ways that stress can be managed leading
to a happy and healthier lifestyle for AC.
Stress Management Intervention
Prolonged stress may lead to poor health decision and/or poor health
outcomes for AC. Stress might contribute to the persistence of certain high-risk
activities and might also exert a direct effect on physiological processes that over
time contributes to CHD (Angus et al, 2007). In ACs situation, it is evident that
where she is at in life as a full time nursing student could be greatly affecting her
stress level. This could lead to her excessive sun exposure without proper sunscreen
habits; as well as self-medicating her stress levels by turning to poor diet choices.
Kathy Sitzman, RN understands stress and shared her methods for coping. Sitzman
suggested ways to reduce stress while working, AC could use these mechanisms
during class. A couple of examples are to walk at 85% of normal speed as this
decreased pace affects stress level, when typing deliberately touch the keys softly,
and lastly while walking speak motivational phrases to the pattern of your feet like
I was meant to do this (Sitzman, 2004).
Adolescents in employment training programs, such as college, are shown to
have worse health than similar-aged peers (Darius Tandon et al, 2012). ACs risk for
poor health could be directly correlated to her anxiety. A survey was conducted on

RISKS OF STRESS ON A COLLEGE STUDENT

college aged students and how their physical activity and food choices affected
their emotional state. The results of the survey showed that students who had daily
breakfast, ate fruits and vegetables, and participated in daily physical activity felt
happier and less stressed (Piqueras et al, 2011). AC is on the appropriate track
considering she eats a daily breakfast. For AC, physical activity and more
consumption of vegetables may help lower her stress level.
Wellness Diagnoses
Based on ACs gathered assessment data, two wellness diagnoses were
formed. The first diagnosis is health-seeking behaviors related to stress as a risk
factor for coronary artery disease as evidenced by the Real Age assessment. This
wellness diagnosis has defining characteristics that are related to AC like
psychosocial status, including lifestyle and motivation (Sparks & Taylor, 2010,
853). The second wellness diagnosis is readiness for enhanced hope based on
assessment findings off patients perception of ability to set personal goals
defined as AC expresses desire to enhance ability to set achievable goals (Sparks
& Taylor, 2010, 855).
Goal
Based on the assessment data from ACs Real Age test and her Wellness
Diagnoses one SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, and realisticially-timebound) goal has been created for AC to make every effort to achieve. The goal was
based on limiting the amount of stress impacting ACs life. It read Client will do one
task daily to help lower stress levels and report that she did so in a journal with a
reflection about how it helped.
Transtheoretical Model

RISKS OF STRESS ON A COLLEGE STUDENT

The Transtheoretical Model is a model depicting a persons willingness to

change their behavior based on five stages: Precontemplation, Contemplation,
Preparation, Action, and Maintenance. AC is in stage three, the preparation stage,
where she is seriously thinking of making a change and actions have been
identified. AC has come to the realization that she struggles with her anxiety level
and deals with it inappropriately by turning to eating junk food and making poor
decisions when it comes to sun exposure. Now that AC is identified the actions to
take she will move into step four by actively involving herself in the behavioral
change and be involved for six months. AC will move onto the maintenance stage
after the six months and will continue for an indefinite amount of time by continuing
to follow her new behavioral pattern that leads to properly maintained stress levels.
Evaluation
For five school days, AC completed one stress reliever act every day and
properly recorded it. AC was partly successful in meeting her SMART goal as seen in
Appendix B of her log of the activity she performed and how it made her feel. She
tried performing various tasks throughout the week, however, some of them did not
seem to achieve the goal of lowering her stress level. One example of this is that AC
tried the idea of tapping lightly on the keys when typing while doing her homework,
instead this made her feel more stressed and worried about the time it was taking
to complete the assignment at hand. Although some strategies failed to work, this
is positive because through this activity AC now knows what skills helped with
maintaining her stress and what skills arent beneficial to her personally. AC is now
equipped with the tools necessary to cope with her stress levels and hopefully will
keep progressing throughout the five stages.

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Appendix A
Real Age Results

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Appendix B
Stress Log with Reflection

RISKS OF STRESS ON A COLLEGE STUDENT

Monday

Snacked on vegetables
throughout the day versus
unhealthy choices.

Tuesday

Typed lightly on the

keyboards while working
on my study guide.

Wednesday

I took a test. At the end of

every page I looked up
and took a deep breath in
and out.

Thursday

At clinicals I said
motivational phrases in
my head to the pace of
my footsteps.

Friday

I took quizzes again today

so I did the deep
breathing exercises again.

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I felt more rejuvenated
during the day knowing I
was making healthier
decisions for my body.
This made me feel more
stressed and worried
about the time it was
taking to complete the
assignment at hand rather
than calm me down.
This helped me maintain
my motivation and not get
so nervous to the point of
inability to focus on the
exam.
This helped me in more
ways than I thought. It
reminded me why Im
going to school and that I
am meant to do this. It
brought a new aspect to
my day at clinicals.
Once again I found this
beneficial to my testing
and will continue to do
this during all quizzes and
tests in the future.

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Appendix C
Dear AC,
Based on the log you created, it appears you are making great efforts. I
commend you on that. I think there is always room for improvement. On days
that you try new strategies and you find that they dont work, I encourage
you to try something else that same day. Falling off track one day, could lead
to falling off track for too long. Your SMART goal is still fully attainable. If you
continue to keep working at eating more fruits and vegetables and
consuming less red meat you are on the path to staying younger. Continue to
remember why you are doing this, it will help to motivate you.

References
Angus, J., Rukholm, E., Onge, R., Michel, I., Nolan, R., Lapum, J., & Evans, S. (2007).
Habitus, Stress, and the Body: The Everyday Production of Health and
Cardiovascular Risk. Qualitative Health Research, 17, 1088-1102. doi:
10.1177/1049732307307553
Anxiety and Depression Association of America. (2010). Retrieved from
http://www.adaa.org/finding-help/helping-others/college-students/facts.
Buczynski, R. (2015). Weight Loss and Food Choice: 200 Food Decisions a Day.
National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine.
Darius Tandon, S., Dariotis, J., Tucker, M., & Sonenstein, F. (2013). Coping, Stress,
and Social Support Associations with Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior

RISKS OF STRESS ON A COLLEGE STUDENT

among Urban Adolescents and Young Adults: Revelations from a Cluster
Analysis. Journal of Adolescent Health, 52, 627-633. doi:
10.1016/j.jadohealth.2012.10.001.
Roizen, M. and Oz, M. (2013). RealAge. Retrieved from http://www.realage.com.
Sitzman, K. (2004). Coping with Stress. Home Healthcare Nurse, 22, 603.
Sparks, S. & Taylor, C. (2010.) Nursing diagnosis reference manual. New York, NY:
Lippincott & Williams.

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