EXAMINING THE HEALTHY LIFESTYLE BEHAVIORS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Aim: This study was conducted to examine the healthy lifestyle behaviors of university students. Method: 250 voluntary participants were contacted. The participants were determined with the Convenient Sampling Method and were studying at Süleyman Demirel University. Ninety six of the participants (38.4%) were female; and 154 (61.6%) were male. The mean age was 21.33±2.37. The Information Collection Form, which was prepared by the Author of the study, and the “Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale”, which was developed by Walker et al. in 1987, was used as the data collection tools in the study. The scale was adopted into Turkish by Esin in 1999. The scale measures the behaviors that improve health for a healthy lifestyle of the individual, and consists of 48 items and 6 dimensions. These dimensions are; “Self-Realization”, “Health Responsibility”, “Exercise”, “Nutrition”, “Interpersonal Support” and “Stress Management”. The scale is designed in Likert type, and all the items are in positive direction and are suitable for grading between 1 and 4. The lowest point that may be received from the scale is 48, and the highest point is 192. The SPSS 22.0 Package Statistics Program was used in analyzing the data obtained in the study. In paired comparisons, the T-Test was used for the data that showed normal distribution; and in multiple comparisons, the ANOVA Test was used. For the data that were not normally distributed, in paired comparisons, the Mann Whitney U-Test was used; and in multiple comparisons, the Kruskal Wallis Test was used. The significance level was accepted as 0.05. Result: It was determined in the study that the healthy lifestyle behaviors of university students did not vary according to the gender, residential area, the department studied, smoking and alcohol-taking status. It was also determined that they acted in similar ways in this context. However, it was also observed that this behavior style varied according to whether students did sports or not. Conclusion: As a conclusion, the healthy lifestyle behaviors of university students do not differ according to gender, residence, department, smoking and alcohol use status; and they act in similar ways. Article visualizations