LIMITING AND FACILITATING FACTORS IN USING STUDENT HEALTH CARE AND COUNSELLING SERVICES: A JAPANESE SPORT UNIVERSITY SAMPLE

Abstract

Although university athletes face multiple physical and mental health problems and need relevant support, they avoid using student health care and counselling services. It is important to build a system such that university athletes use these services easily. This study aimed to examine the factors limiting and facilitating the use of student health care and counselling services in a Japanese sport university sample. We conducted a semi-structured interview with each of the 21 participants who were Japanese university athletes (12 males, 9 females; mean age = 20.6 years; standard deviation = 0.8 years). To extract the factors limiting and facilitating the use of student health care and counselling services, we analysed the data with KH Coder 3 using the co-occurrence network analysis. Based on our analysis, four limiting (e.g. ‘embarrassment’) and six facilitating factors (e.g. ‘security feelings towards staff’) for the use of health care services were extracted. Further, five limiting (e.g. ‘low awareness’) and four facilitating factors (e.g. ‘professional office’) for the use of counselling services were found. This study indicated that there are different limiting and facilitating factors for each service and it is necessary to deal with these specific factors.