This web page was created programmatically, to learn the article in its unique location you'll be able to go to the hyperlink bellow: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1958833/fulland if you wish to take away this text from our web site please contact us [ad_1] ORIGINAL RESEARCH articleFront. Public Health Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and PreventionAbstractBackground: 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 SummaryKeywordsCross-sectional study, Life Style, Risk Reduction Behavior, SARS-CoV-2, Students, Upper respiratory tract infection (URTI)Accepted08 September 2026 Copyright © 2026 He, Li, Li, Ning and Xia. This is an open-access article distributed beneath the phrases of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or copy in different boards is permitted, offered the unique creator(s) or licensor are credited and that the unique publication on this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted educational follow. No use, distribution or copy is permitted which doesn't adjust to these phrases. *Correspondence: Ting LiDisclaimer All claims expressed on this article are solely these of the authors and don't essentially signify these of their affiliated organizations, or these of the writer, the editors and the reviewers. Any product which may be evaluated on this article or declare which may be made by its producer shouldn't be assured or endorsed by the writer. [ad_2] This web page was created programmatically, to learn the article in its unique location you'll be able to go to the hyperlink bellow: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1958833/fulland if you wish to take away this text from our web site please contact us