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Background and Purpose: Because there are conflicting perspectives on the factor structure of the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) Questionnaire among college students, we evaluated the psychometric properties of the instrument in a sample of U.S. college students. Methods: We conducted secondary analysis of data collected from 1,138 undergraduate students from a large metropolitan university in the southeastern United States. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis did not support the original 4-factor structure. Based on exploratory factor analysis, three factors were retained and rotated using Varimax rotation, which accounted for 96% of the item variance. Coefficient alphas for the factors were: social/psychological health, 0.84; physical health, 0.81; and environment, 0.77. Sexual minorities had significantly lower scores on all factors than those who identified as heterosexuals. Conclusions: In this sample of college students, the WHOQOL-BREF was three-dimensional, and a significant amount of the item variance was explained. Lower quality of life scores of nonWhites and sexual minority college students point to a critical need that should be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of studies have documented the relationship between smoking and depression in adolescent and adult populations. The purpose of this study was to examine the level of depressive symptoms among college-age smokers and to determine whether or not increases in cigarette use were associated with increases in the number of depressive symptoms. A non-experimental cross-sectional design was used. Of the random sample (N = 895), 28% were current smokers, and more than 26% of the total sample reported high levels of depressive symptoms. Current smokers were more likely to report an increased level of depressive symptoms than nonsmokers were. Correlates of depressive symptoms included grade point average, marijuana use, and increased work hours. When controlling for these variables, the number of days smoked was predictive of depressive symptoms. School nurses have an important role in preventing smoking and treating smokers, as well as in preparing adolescents for the transition to college where many begin smoking.