LAM Kin-Man, LIE Shih-Hung, MAK Ka-Chun, MONG Ka-Chun, SO Chun-Man, YUEN Wai-Yip
Bachelor of Health Science, Nursing. Tung Wah College, Hong Kong
Title: The Relationship between Self-Rated Health and Health Promoting Behaviors among College Nursing Students
Biography
Biography: LAM Kin-Man, LIE Shih-Hung, MAK Ka-Chun, MONG Ka-Chun, SO Chun-Man, YUEN Wai-Yip
Abstract
Background: Nurses are expected to be the role model in health promotion and they should adopt healthy lifestyle to live a productive life. The unhealthy lifestyles developed in young age may continue into adulthood which could create an impact on the individual, family and community health. As a key member of the healthcare professional, nurses are required to be an advocate in health promotion and related activities.
Self-rated health is commonly used in health research to gauze the general health status of the participants. The single question is found valid and reliable to predict the morbidity and mortality. A complex relationship exists between self-rated health and health behaviours.
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-rated health and health promoting lifestyle of nursing students in junior and senior year, and to explore the demographic factors that are affecting the adoption of healthy lifestyle among nursing students.
Design: Cross-section study. The junior (Year 2) and senior year (Year 5) nursing students were invited to participate.
Setting and Participants: The study was conducted between January to April, 2018. A total of 325 students were recruited, including173 junior year students and 152 senior year students.
Results: The majority of nursing students were female (78.3%), with part-time job (71.7%), lived with family (96.8%) and non-smokers (99.7%). Significant difference was found between junior and senior year students on health responsibility. Moderate positive correlation was found between health management and spiritual growth (r = 0.61, p < .001), nutrition and physical activities (r = 0.42, p < .001). Family conflict was a factor that significantly affecting nursing students’ self-rated health. Gender, year of study, part-time work and religious belief were significantly factors that affected their health-promoting lifestyle.
Conclusion: Interventions are encourage to be implemented to the junior year students to enhance their health responsibilities. Further studies are required to find how family conflicts are affecting an individual’s self-rated health. Conflict management could be embedded into nursing curriculum to improve thewell being of nursing students. The Longitudinal study for the same cohort of students is recommended to evaluate the trend of self-perceived health and health promotion lifestyle of college students.