Evaluation of healthy living-style behaviors of Gaziosmanpaşa University Faculty of Medicine first and final grade students

Healthy lifestyle behaviors play an important role in preventing chronic diseases and protecting health. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the healthy lifestyle behaviors of the first and last year students studying at the medical faculty of our university and also to determine the factors that may be involved. The population of this study, which is observational, analytical and cross-sectional, was formed by the first and last year students studying at Gaziosmanpaşa University Faculty of Medicine in the 2018-2019 academic year. After the students were informed about the purpose of the study and their verbal consent was obtained, a questionnaire form prepared by reviewing the literature to determine the factors that may affect healthy lifestyle behaviors, which also included sociodemographic data and a Healthy Lifestyle Behaviour Scale II (HLBS-II) were applied. Independent Samples T Test and One Way Analysis of Variance (Anova) were used in the analysis of the data. In our study, in which we aimed to evaluate the healthy lifestyle behaviors of first and last year medical faculty students; HLBS-II total mean score was found to be moderate in the first (128.04 ± 20.07) and last (123.68 ± 15.33) grade students, in line with the literature, and there was no statistically significant difference between the grades in terms of the mean HLBS-II total score. (p = 0.067). While the highest mean score belonged to the spiritual development subgroup for both classes in the HLBS-II analysis, the lowest mean score belonged to the physical activity subgroup. In addition, the average physical activity subgroup mean score was found to be higher in 1st graders than 6th graders (p = 0.001 *). When all of the students were considered, 18.7% (43) stated that they smoke and 14.3% (33) stated that they consumed alcohol. It was observed that the average nutritional score of non-smokers was higher than that of smokers and those that quit smoking (p = 0.001 *). In addition, the stre average of non-smokers was found to be higher than the stress management score average of the students who quit smoking (p = 0.031). While the average health responsibility score (p = 0.046) of the students with a family member having a health problem was higher than those without, physical activity score average (p = 0.037) was found to be low. Health responsibility, physical activity, spiritual development, interpersonal relationships, stress management, HLBS-II total score averages of students who perceive their health status as bad was found to be lower than the students who evaluated their health status as good and moderate (p values respectively 0.015 *, 0.002 *, <0.001 *, 0.002 *, <0.001 *, <0.001 *). The nutritional subgroup score average of the students who rated their health status as good was found to be higher than the students who rated their health status as poor or moderate (p = 0.001 *). As a result; the mean total score of HLBS-II in both the first year and last year medical students is found to be intermediate and in accordance with the literature. Physical activity sub-group had the lowest score average among the HLBS-II subgroups for both grades. This is thought to be due to the fact that medical faculty students having an intensive education program. In addition, it is considered that this situation may be effective on the lower physical activity sub-group score average in the sixth graders compared to the first graders. Furthermore, the number of students with negative health behaviors that are candidates to become physicians who will be role models for the society is also substantial. The negative effects of smoking, presence of a family member with health problems and negative health perception on healthy lifestyle behaviors should not be ignored. In this sense, in order to increase students' healthy lifestyle behaviors, it is important to organize their social environment and to allocate more space to this issue in the education curriculum. Keywords: healthy lifestyle, education, faculty of medicine