Health Promoting Lifestyle Practices: A Comparative Study on Health and Non-Health Professional Students

To identify the health promoting lifestyle practices among health professional (HP) and nonhealth professional (NHP) students using HPLP (II) scale.

A comparative design was used for the present study. 200 students were selected by using purposive sampling technique. A self-administered questionnaire (HPLP II) was used to assess the healthy lifestyle practices in six domains. The data analysis was done by using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Out of total 200 participants, 100 were health professional and 100 were non-health professional students. The highest mean out of a scale of 4, was 2.96 (SD=0.618) and 2.96 (SD=0.618) for spiritual growth in health professional students and non-health professional students respectively. The lowest mean score was 2.19(SD=0.625) and 2.09 (SD= 0.605) for physical activity and health responsibility in health professional students and non-health professional students respectively. Significant difference between the groups were identified in the sub scales of health responsibility (2.43 Vs 2.09, P=0.005), inter personal relationship (2.85 Vs 2.78, P=0.089) and nutrition (2.29 Vs 2.39, P=0.017). No major difference was observed between other sub scales. The overall performance was moderate among health professional students (2.55) and low among non-health professional students. (2.48)

The study concluded that many of the students were not adopting healthy lifestyle practices. Health professional students had moderate scores and non-health professional students had low scores. Since this study shows moderate and low health promoting lifestyle practices, there is need to develop guidelines and periodic investigation for the students for their good health.