Lifestyle Components or Protecting Behaviors: Which Are Extra Strongly Related With Upper Respiratory Tract Infections After COVID-19? A Cross-Sectional Research of 1,535 Chinese language College Students

Abstract

Background: Respiratory pathogens have resurged following the COVID-19 pandemic. College college students are socially energetic and infrequently reside or research in congregate settings, which can place them at continued danger of higher respiratory tract an infection (URTI).
Objective: To examine the power of the associations of life-style elements and protecting behaviors with the variety of URTI episodes amongst faculty college students within the post-COVID-19 interval.
Methods: We carried out a cross-sectional survey from June 1 to June 30, 2024, amongst 2,100 college students at six universities in southeastern China. Students had been eligible if their first SARS-CoV-2 an infection had occurred not less than 1 yr earlier than the survey. We collected the variety of URTI episodes from June 1, 2023, to June 1, 2024, along with demographic, life-style, and protective-behavior knowledge. The evaluation included 1,535 legitimate questionnaires. Hierarchical unfavorable binomial regression was used. Demographic variables had been entered within the baseline mannequin, after which life-style elements and protecting behaviors had been added sequentially. Their entry order was then reversed to check the relative contribution of every variable group.
Results: When entered first into the baseline mannequin, life-style elements produced a better enchancment in mannequin match than did protecting behaviors (Δχ²/df, 7.34 vs. 2.48; AIC, 4981.4 vs. 5067.9). Female intercourse, greater BMI classes, continual ailments, COVID-19 vaccination ≥2 doses, daytime sleepiness (IRR, 1.768–2.324), sedentary, vigorous-intensity bodily exercise had been related to extra URTI episodes, whereas sleep period of not less than 7 h and moderate-intensity bodily exercise had been related to fewer episodes (all P < 0.05). Among protecting behaviors, solely pure air flow confirmed a constant inverse affiliation (IRR: 0.425–0.475; P < 0.05). Most different behaviors, together with handwashing earlier than meals, sustaining 1m distance, avoiding touching the eyes/mouth/nostril and public surfaces, and disinfecting telephones and keys weren’t considerably related to URTI episodes.
Conclusion: Lifestyle elements had been extra strongly related to URTI episodes than protecting behaviors amongst faculty college students within the post-COVID-19 interval. These findings counsel that modifiable life-style elements, together with sleep, bodily exercise, and sedentary habits, in addition to pure air flow, could also be related targets for campus well being methods.