Determining Healthy Lifestyle Behaviours of Nursing Students

Abstract

Individuals who manage to transform healthy lifestyle behaviours into a life style can both maintain their state of well-being and bring their health status to a better level. For this reason, developing and maintaining healthy lifestyle behaviours is fundamental to the protection of health and against diseases. Therefore, examination of health behaviours of university students and supporting them on matters that they fail is important for public health.
This descriptive study was conducted to determine healthy lifestyle behaviours of the students studying in the Department of Nursing of Faculty of Health Sciences of the Eastern Mediterranean University.
The study was carried out by the students of the Department of Nursing of Faculty of Health Sciences of the Eastern Mediterranean University. The sample of the study consisted of 170 students who agreed to participate in the study. Data was collected using a questionnaire containing socio demographic characteristics and the "Healthy Lifestyle Behaviour Scale (HLBS)". The number, percentage, Mann Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis variance analysis were used in SPSS 18 statistical program for the analysis of data.
The total score of the HLBS was found as 131.08 ± 18.63, while the subgroup scale scores were found as follows; health responsibility as 21.19 ± 4.13, physical activity as 18.91 ± 4.64, dietary habits as 22.70 ± 3.73, interpersonal relationships as 25.88 ± 3.92 and stress management as 19.60 ± 4.27. It was determined that the average of the highest score of the nursing students was related to the interpersonal relations, while the average of the lowest score was related to the physical activity sub-scale. Healthy lifestyle behaviours of the nursing students participated in the study were found to be moderate.
It was discovered as a result of the study that certain factors, such as gender, living with family, had a positive impact on healthy lifestyle behaviours of the university students. Initiatives to increase physical activities of the students should be planned.