A Sociological Study of Health and Illness, Investigating Health-Related Behaviors among Female Students of Tehran and Alzahra Universities

This paper is a sociological study of heamong female students. A sample of 110 female students (62 students from Alzahra alth, illness, and health-related behaviors -a single sex university located in Tehran- and 48 students from University of Tehran) were deeply interviewed. Using grounded theory the interview-based information was analyzed. Findings suggest that health is believed to be the most important issue in life in terms of both mental and physical meanings. The female students who were interviewed describe illness differently. While one group knows it as something reducing the quality of life, the other group views it as a kind of God punishment. Regarding health-related behaviors, according to the results, female students ignore illness symptoms, kill pain temporarily and, by appearing beautiful, try to indicate they are mentally healthy. These lead to further dominance of male culture, risky life style and threaten social health. The above described views and behaviors among female students are influenced by low self-esteem, socialization, family interdependence and industrial life.