The aim of Health Surveillance is to analyze and describe the state of health of students at Constructor University, key influencing factors and individual resources by using mixed-method design.

The aim of Health Surveillance plus the additional research by means of qualitative interviews is to analyze and describe the state of stress and health of students at Constructor University (CU) by using a mixed-methods approach, as well as explore the association and mechanism between stress and health of students at CU (and employees at HAW Hamburg), key influencing factors and individual resources. In areas where there is a need for action, the Health Surveillance plus this project the additional qualitative interviews can provide detailed insights and/or in-depth analyses. The Health Surveillance thus provides information on health-related topics and delivers scientifically sound information as a basis for health-promoting discussions in the subsequent follow-up process at various levels (e.g. faculties and departments). In addition, the Health Surveillance plus the additional interviews at CU contributes to comparability with surveys at other German universities through the use of validated and standardized measuring instruments and in-depth qualitative interviews with qualitative content analysis, as well as to add new constructs i.e. artificial intelligence and digital technology use as well as demo-cratic competences, as this turned out to be new and important factors.

Main hypotheses are

1. The Health Surveillance gives insights into state of stress and health of students at CU, key influencing factors and individual resources by using a mixed-methods approach.
2. With the Health Surveillance the health-promotion at CU by using a mixed-methods approach, as well as explore the association and mechanism between stress and health of students at CU (and employees at HAW Hamburg), can be guided and promotion of mental health (including the reduction of loneliness and discrimination) can be strengthened.
3. The health of students (and employees at HAW Hamburg), their perceived stress, loneliness and discrimination/minorization (disadvantage) as well as substance use interrelates with participation in health promoting activities?
4. Recommendations can be derived for qualification and skills training of multipliers for health-promoting behavior (e.g., J-peers)?

Inclusion Criteria:

• English language skills
• Reading and writing skills
• Internet access
• Student status
• Consent to participate in the study

Exclusion Criteria:

• Illiteracy
• Massively limited cognitive abilities ( i.e. linguistic components of the digital offerings must be able to be used, and questionnaires completed, or interviews participated in) and severe psychiatric disorders (e.g., severe depression)

This project contains three phases, the first one is quantitative phase (2025), the second one is qualitative phase (Dec 2025-April 2026) and the third one is again quantitative phase (2026). All Constructor University students and employees at HAW Hamburg who wish to take part in the study will be included. In the quantitative phase, Iinclusion criteria are english English language for CU students and German language for HAW employees, reading and writing skills, internet access and student status. In the qualitative phase, the inclusion criteria are English or Chinese language and between 18-30 years old. Before the start of the survey period and directly before the start of the online survey or interview, all participants will receive all relevant study information and actively declare their consent to participate in the study.

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