Comparison of healthy lifestyle behaviors of national and international students at Firat University

Healthy lifestyle behaviors include behaviors that must be fulfilled in order to maintain a healthier life and a healthy life. This study was conducted in order to determine and compare the healthy living behaviors of national and international students who continue their education in different departments of Fırat University. While the universe of the study was composed of university students studying in different departments in the 2019-2020 academic year; the sample group consisted of 280 (140 women, 140 men) national students and 280 (140 women, 140 men) international students selected by random sampling method. A personal information form was created to determine the demographic characteristics of the students participating in the study. In addition, the Healthy Living Behaviors Questionnaire was used to determine the health lifestyle behavior levels of the subjects. The data obtained from the study were analyzed by using the SPSS (Windows 21.0) program. Descriptive statistical methods (Average, Standard deviation) were used in the evaluation of the data. The Kruskal Wallis Test, Mann Whitney U test and correlation analysis were used to compare scale scores with independent variables. The significance level of all statistics was accepted as p <0.05. As a result of the findings obtained from the research, it was determined that national students' Self-Realization, Health Responsibility, Exercise, Nutrition, Interpersonal Support, and Stress Management scores were higher than the scores of international students. In addition, a significant difference was found when comparing national (HLBS Total score 130.90 ± 13.19) and international (HLBS Total score 125.94 ± 14.67) university students' total healthy living behavior scores (p <0.05).