Practice Pattern of Healthy Lifestyle Indices of University Health Education Students

Abstract

Unhealthy lifestyle is increasing at alarming rates with University students being one of the drivers of the lifestyle. The study was undertaken to determine the pattern of practice of healthy lifestyle indices of the students. One research question and eight hypotheses were verified at 0.05 level of significance. The survey research design of a cross-sectional approach and the 201 Health Education students who were successful in the 2022/2023 Academic Session were used for the study. A sample of 138 made up of 109 females and 29 male students were randomly chosen using disproportionate stratified sampling technique. An adapted ‘Healthy Lifestyle Scale’ which was validated and reliability established at 0.798 was used to collect data from the students.    Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results revealed that the practice pattern of University Health Education students is either good or poor. Moreover. While the exercise behaviour, regular behaviour, health risk behaviour and life appreciation were statistically significantly different by gender, nutrition, health responsibility, social support and stress management were not statistically significantly different by gender. It was recommended from the findings that the poor practice pattern of the students in healthy lifestyle indices can be improved through sensitization of the students by their lecturers on indices in which they reported poorly.

Keywords: University, Health Education, healthy lifestyle, students, good, poor, exercise behaviour.