Life Style Practices And Health Risk Behaviors Of Medical Students: A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Objective: A health risk behavior like physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, tobacco use, drug abuse, unprotected sexual practices or harmful use of alcohol is linked with serious ailments like liver cirrhosis, hypertension, abnormal lipid profile and number of cardiovascular diseases. Our study is aimed to explore perception of students about health risk behaviors; eating routines, life style and stress handling practices and compare amongst medical students of first and second year. Subjects and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 233 female students between 1 8–25 years of age, from first two years of medical college were administered a self-structured questionnaire Response of each item was rated on five-point Likert scale. Maximum points in the scale were five and the minimum was one for each item. Mean score was obtained by adding points of all responses. Degree of health awareness was categorized into low, medium and high on the basis of mean cumulative scores. Independent sample t test was used to compare means between study groups based on academic level (Year I and II medical students) Results: The overall results of the study revealed positive health behaviors among medical students. Year I MBBS had superior acquaintance on healthy eating routines (p-value = 0.001), lifestyle patterns (p-value = 0.002), and stress handling practices (p-value < 0.001) as compared to senior class. Tendency to have anxiety attacks was more in 1st year students (p-value=0.002) while capability to withstand stress was better in senior class (p-value=0.004). Conclusion: Majority of medical students practiced positive health behaviors. These attitudes in terms of selection of life style choices; healthy food and physical activity with avoidance of health risk behaviors and supportive practices was better in Year I students.