Health Literacy and Behaviors Among Students in Health vs. Non-Health-Related Majors: Implications for Substance Use, Socialization, and Wellbeing

Purpose: College is a pivotal time for young adults in relation to new experiences and behaviors. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine whether students' major relates to health literacy, substance use, peer behavior, and mental health. Prior research found a significant difference in substance use behaviors by college major (Chen & Chen, 2020), and students in health-related fields of study showed higher levels of health literacy, while students in non-health related majors showed weaknesses across all dimensions (Rababah et al., 2019). This study aims to expand on prior research by examining the relationship between health behaviors and literacy in relation to participants' major being health or non-health related, while additionally assessing peer behavior and mental health. Procedure: Using an online survey including standardized measures and researcher-written questions, health literacy; alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine use; peer behaviors related to substance use; stress, anxiety, and depression were assessed. Participants were undergraduate students recruited from a Midwestern University (N=82). Results: Independent samples t-tests were conducted to examine group differences on health literacy. As expected, those in health-related majors showed higher levels of health literacy than non-health-related majors. There were no differences in substance use across groups, but non-health-related majors reported more symptoms of depression that the health-related group. Chi-Square analysis revealed that both groups reported sometimes considering their health prior to using substances, however, health-related majors were significantly more likely to skip a social event because they knew substances would be present. Thus, we found that health literacy through education does not always translate into changes in health behaviors.