Barriers to access and utilization of student well-being services among Biomedical Sciences students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22013890Keywords:
student health; health services accessibility; health occupations students; higher education; mental health; ParaguayAbstract
Introduction: student well-being is important for mental health and comprehensive development in higher education; however, the existence of institutional services does not necessarily guarantee their effective utilization by the university population.
Objective: to identify the main barriers limiting access to and utilization of student well-being services among second-year Nursing and Kinesiology and Physiotherapy students at the Universidad Nacional de Pilar, Paraguay.
Method: a mixed-methods study with a non-experimental, cross-sectional design and a descriptive-analytical scope was conducted in 2025. The sample included 92 students in the quantitative component, selected through probabilistic sampling, and 10 students from the Student Well-being Unit of said university in the qualitative component. A structured survey with closed-ended questions and Likert-type scales, as well as semi-structured interviews, were applied.
Results: although 100% of the students recognized the existence of the Student Well-being Unit, only 28.26% stated that they clearly knew the procedure for accessing the services. Furthermore, 63.04% indicated that they had not used any institutional service, and 58.70% did not use them during the last academic year. The most used services were scholarships (26.09%) and sports activities (23.91%). Among those who used the services, 80.43% reported being very satisfied. The main barriers identified were lack of information (39.13%), inaccessible schedules (19.57%), and associated costs (15.22%).
Conclusions: the main difficulties are related to informational, organizational, and structural barriers, rather than to the assessment of the services among those who managed to use them.
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