Health-promoting lifestyle among Mashhad School of Health Students, Mashhad, Iran, 2014

Health-promoting lifestyle (HPL) is one of the main criteria which determine health and underlying factors preventing the health-threatening factors. HPL includes six dimensions of spiritual growth, health responsibility, nutrition, stress management, interpersonal relations, and physical activity. Considering the importance of students’ health, both at individual and social levels, the present study was carried out to evaluate HPL among students (mainly females) of School of Health, affiliated to Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in 2014. In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 107 students of Mashhad School of Health using stratified random sampling were included. In order to collect data, Walker questionnaire, with a 4-point Likert scale, was utilized which included two sections of demographic questions, and questions related to the six dimensions of HPL. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and independent T-test, using SPSS version 11.5. The significance level was considered less than 0.05. Lifestyle of 9.3%, 84.1%, and 6.5% of the students was poor, moderate and good, respectively. The mean scores of HPL dimensions were as follows: spiritual growth: 30.27±5.4, health responsibility: 32.15±6.5, nutrition: 15.65±4.06, stress management: 12.76±2.9, interpersonal relations: 21.34±4.35, and physical activity: 13.69±5.1. A significant relationship was seen between gender and physical activity (p<0.05). The majority of students had a moderate score of HPL. Since the lowest scores were related to physical activity and stress management, more facilities and training programs are required to improve these issues. It is recommended to provide high-quality healthcare services for students and raise their awareness about the benefits of physical activity via mass media.