Evaluation of healthy lifestyle behaviors in highschool adolescents

The World Health Organization defines the age range of 10-19 as adolescence period. Approximately one-fifth of Turkey's population is comprised of adolescents and young people in the 10-24 age group. At least 70% of early adult deaths are due to behaviors acquired during adolescence. The lifestyle of adolescents, who will form the important part of the society in the future, may affect their health and the health of the society. In this context, the aim of the study is to evaluate healthy lifestyle behaviors (HLB) in high school adolescents. The population of the cross-sectional study is students in a science high school in the Central Anatolian region of Turkey. It was planned to reach the entire research population, but it was completed between January-April 2022 with 267 volunteer students. Data were collected in classrooms through the "Socio-demographic Characteristics Information Form" and the "Adolescent Lifestyle Scale" and analyzed with the IBM SPSS 23 program. In data analysis, descriptive statistical methods (number, percentage, min-max values, mean and standard deviation), independent sample t-test, One-Way Analysis of Variance, Tukey HSD from Post-Hoc tests were used. Statistical significance level is p<0.05. Adolescents' healthy lifestyle behaviors and health responsibility increase in direct proportion to age. From adolescents; those with good school success have higher healthy lifestyle behaviors, health responsibility, healthy eating behavior, positive life perception; those live in a big family have higher healthy lifestyle behaviors, health responsibility and physical activity behavior. It has been observed that adolescents with chronic diseases manage their stress better than those without. In addition, those who perceive their current health status well present higher healthy lifestyle behavior, physical activity, healthy diet, positive perception of life, and interpersonal relationships. It was determined that the healthy lifestyle behaviors levels of the adolescents were above the mean. Factors associated with healthy lifestyle behaviors in adolescent are gender, age, school success, family type, perception of economic status, presence of chronic disease and current health perception. These findings can be used as a guide for school health nurses to improve adolescent health.