Assessment of health conditions in student dormitories in Poland

: The health conditions in all students' hostels in Poland were assessed in 1992 using a standardized set of criteria. The study was carried out by workers from the divisions of children and adolescent hygiene of all sanitary-epidemiological stations in whose areas were the hostels. The data obtained in 1991 were compared with those from the years 1983 and 1977, since the methods, range and organization of these studies were identical in these years. Out of the total number of 388 hostels in the lists supplied by 35 sanitary-epidemiological stations the health conditions were assessed in 382 hostels (98%). The hostels not assessed in this action were those where repair works were conducted. The assessment demonstrated that in the studied period from 1977 to 1991 the health conditions in students' hostels have improved significantly. The observed improvement was due, in a high degree, to reduced number of inhabitants in the hostels, and with modernization of the buildings which had not been built for accomodating students. The shortcomings of the sanitary-hygienic conditions in some hostels suggest the need for undertaking of current and long-term actions for improving artificial as well as natural lighting in dwelling rooms and rooms for reading, providing of optimal conditions for maintenance of personal hygiene, and for conditions of recreation, wherever possible, in the immediate vicinity of hostels. A disquieting tendency is the reduction in the number of students taking meals in students' canteens, with increasing organization of feeding on individual level, which, in view of the present falling economic resources of the population can have serious health consequences.