Determining the relationship between body mass index, healthy lifestyle behaviors and social appearance anxiety

Physicians, who provide general medical services, should give the patients an advice on physical activity. The study was aimed to assess physical activity of medical students, as well as their awareness of this issue, and willingness to provide the public an advice on commitment to a healthy lifestyle in terms of physical activity. A total of 518 medical students were surveyed. The data obtained with the Steps and Screen Time mobile applications were used. Physical fitness was assessed using the standard anthropometric technique. Statisctical processing of the data obtained was performed with the Statistica 13 PL statistical software package. The study met the requirements of biomedical ethics and posed no risk to participants. No significant differences in the number of steps between males and females was observed. It was 9033±3297 steps in males and 7807±3570 steps in females. The evidence supporting the relationship between physical activity and average time spent on a smartphone per day was obtained: the correlation coefficient for the relationship between the number of steps per day and the screen time was -0.36 (moderate negative correlation). Correlation coefficients for the relationships between body mass index and physical activity (-0.35) and between body mass index and screen time (0.33, moderate positive correlation) were calculated. The data obtained allowed us to develop simple and feasible guidelines on improving physical activity in medical students, as well as to develop a tracker of positive habit of daily optimal physical activity for each student, and to discuss the results within the framework of the business game Physical Activity in Various Sectors of Population.

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Evaluating the Relationship between Nursing Students’ Awareness of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Health Behaviors with Health Literacy

Journal of Education and Research in Nursing ◽

10.5222/head.2020.01112 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sena Kaplan ◽

Sibel Peksoy Kaya

Keyword(s):

Health Literacy ◽

Nursing Students ◽

Health Behaviors ◽

Healthy Lifestyle ◽

Pearson Correlation ◽

Significance Test ◽

Lifestyle Behaviors ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors ◽

The Relationship

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between nursing students’ awareness of the COVID-19 pandemic and health behaviors with health literacy. METHODS: This descriptive and cross-sectional study comprised 408 students enrolled in an undergraduate nursing program at a public university in Turkey. The data were collected online using the Individual Information Form, Healthy Lifestyle Behavior Scale II, and Turkish Health Literacy Scale-32. The percentiles, significance test of the difference between two means, and Pearson correlation analysis were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The mean age of students was 20.89±1.95 and three of them had been diagnosed with COVID-19. It was determined that the students had sufficient health literacy (𝒙̅ =35.97±8.73), and healthy lifestyle behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic were at a moderate level (𝒙̅ =55.76±12.05). The results showed that as awareness of nursing students regarding COVID-19 and precautions against it increased, their mean score of health literacy increased, too (p<.05). Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between students’ mean score of healthy lifestyle behaviors in nutrition, physical activity, and stress management and their mean score of health literacy (p<.05). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: As the results have shown a relationship between nursing students’ awareness of COVID-19 and healthy lifestyle behaviors and health literacy, it is suggested to adapt the health literacy to students’ daily life during the pandemic period.

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