Health-promoting Behaviors of Physical Therapy Students

[Purpose] This study aimed to evaluate the health-promoting behaviors of physical therapy students, and compare the behaviors among students in different year of study. [Subjects and Methods] The Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile-II questionnaire was distributed to 720 undergraduate students attending public physical therapy schools to evaluate their health-promoting behaviors (health responsibility, physical activity, nutritional habits, spiritual growth, interpersonal relations, and stress management). An analysis of variance followed by a post-hoc test was used to determine differences in the behaviors among students in 4 different years of study. [Results] The students scored highest on the interpersonal relations (3.28 +/- 0.47) and lowest on the physical activity (2.29 +/- 0.51) subscales. Comparisons of the behaviors among students in the 4 study years revealed that the first year students had the lowest score of nutritional habits, while third and fourth year students had significant lower scores than the first and second year students on the stress management subscale. [Conclusion] Physical therapy students seem to have good health-promoting behaviors in the dimensions of psychosocial well-being (spiritual growth, interpersonal relations, and stress management). These findings could be useful for the school administrators to structure curriculums as well as healthier environments, and develop activities for encouraging physical therapy students to adopt healthy lifestyles.