Health Awareness among College Youth in Dehradun: A Qualitative Study

This qualitative study explores perceptions, attitudes and lived-experiences of collegeyouth in Dehradun city regarding health-awareness: its meaning, sources, barriers andenabling factors. Through focus group discussions with students from two colleges inDehradun, themes of health knowledge, lifestyle behaviour, campus environment and therole of peer/media emerged. The findings suggest that while many students recognisehealth as a multidimensional concept physical, mental and social they face challenges intranslating awareness into sustained healthy behaviour due to time constraints, socialinfluences and infrastructural limitations. Recommendations include peer led healtheducation campaigns, campus wellness hubs and leveraging digital media for interactivehealth literacy.