Healthy Universities: Concepts, Dimensions and Approaches for the Construction of Healthy University Environments

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyse the health paradigms that prevail in the actions of the current university world by specifying the dimensions to guide interventions within the framework of Healthy Universities and by proposing a comprehensive and integrated vision of health for the construction of these interventions. Thus, a systematic review of the main available scientific databases based on an interpretative perspective was carried out. Forty-four articles, published between 2007 and 2018 and related to university environments or some of their stakeholders that included the addressed dimensions of Health: physical, mental, social, environmental and spiritual were selected. The results show that this field of study is growing, most studies point to the physical and mental dimension of the students. Few studies were found in the other addressed dimensions for teachers, employees and pensioners. In conclusion, the relevance of the five dimensions was identified; although the least studied were environmental and spiritual, they have great potential for the development of interventions. Healthy universities must articulate the five dimensions with the stakeholders that make up their communities from the holistic and salutogenic approach to overcome the bio-medical trend of current interventions.