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.
The Relationship between Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors and Body Compositions in University Students
