Assessment of the Attitudes of Health Professionals Regarding the Promotion of a Healthy Lifestyle in the Community

Rabia Muberra Badur Bey, Pemra Cobek Unalan

Keywords: Health promoting Lifestyle Profile, HPLP-2, residents, students of nutrition and diet undergraduate program, training, practice-based education.

Background:

Training on healthy lifestyle behaviors is limited in the training process of most healthcare workers. Although healthcare professionals give healthy lifestyle advice to their patients or individuals, they do not apply these behaviors sufficiently to their own lives.

Research questions:

What are the health attitudes of healthcare professionals who are expected to develop a healthy lifestyle in their community?

Method:

The study was conducted between February-October 2023 as a cross-sectional descriptive study. A cluster type sampling method was used to include 304 participants who were the first and the last year residents of the Family Medicine, Public Health, Internal Medicine and Cardiology departments and the undergraduate students in the Nutrition&Dietetics Faculty. Participants were administered the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile-2 (HPLP-2) scale, consisting of 52 questions, and the Participant Assessment Form determining sociodemographic characteristics.

Results:

The mean age of the 156 participating students and 148 physicians in the study is 24.4±4.5. The mean of the HPLP-2 total score was 125.91±20.6 and the highest sub-dimensions score was for interpersonal relationships (2.80±0.52), while the lowest score is for physical activity (2.05±0.58). In our study, students, those in their final year of education, and those encountering health-promoting practices were found to have significantly higher total scores on HPLP-2 (p<0.05). Regular exercise, adequate fluid intake, abstaining from energy drinks, satisfaction with the department, and willingly starting the department were found to have a statistically significant effect on healthy lifestyle behaviors.

Conclusions:

The health professionals in the disciplines receiving health education and aiming to improve healthy lifestyle behaviors to their patients or applicants during their practices have a moderate level of attitudes relating self-healthy lifestyle behaviors. As the duration of training increases, individuals' health behaviors promote. So amlifying learning and focusing on practice, throughout the training should be effective in improving healthy lifestyle attitudes of the health professionals.

Points for discussion:

Why do Nutrition and Dietetic Faculty final year undergraduate students’ have significantly higher total scores than medical school residents?

How does receiving health education reflect on one's own life?

What are the reasons why doctors' health behaviors are inadequate compared to other health professionals?

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