ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Housing is an essential necessity to student and should be made available by the university. This accommodation provided by the universities are called halls of residence and occupant have factors that will determine their final choice of accommodation.
However, the accommodation provided by universities entails different individuals from different social economic background staying in a single room or sharing with few persons. when people from different back ground come together in high amount , it can affect the quality of life of this individuals .
OBJECTIVES: This study was carried put to access the bed occupancy rate , factors influencing bed occupancy and the effect of bed occupancy on the health of student in the halls of residence in the university of Benin.
METHODOLOGY: This study was carried out amongst 320 respondents using multistage sampling technique for selection. A Pre-tested questionnaire was used for data collection. The standard bed occupancy in the halls of residence were collated. The data was analyzed with IBM SPSS. The occupancy rate was scored as Under occupied, Exact and Over occupied.
RESULT: The age of the respondent was between 16 and 30 years with a higher proportion being female.
The occupancy rate for Hall1 was 1.2, Hall4 1.1, NDDC 1.1, Hall 5 1.0 and CSH 1.0 and for the factors influencing bed occupancy, it was found that cheap accommodation , closeness to lecture halls, and power supply were the major factors influencing bed occupancy in the halls of residence.
Malaria symptoms, catarrh, cough and insect bite where the prominent physical symptoms amongst respondents in the halls of residence with 18%, 14%,15% and 15% respectively while poor sleep, weight loss and weakness with 39%, 23% and 17% respectively were the prominent mental health symptoms.
CONCLUSION: Some of the halls of residence in the university were over occupied and most of the respondents stated that the halls were overcrowded and prefer fewer individual in their rooms. Closeness to lecture hall was the major factor that influenced bed occupancy in the halls of residence. Malaria symptoms and poor sleep were the prominent health symptoms amongst respondents with symptoms predominantly occurring monthly.
