Assessment of health-promoting lifestyle behaviors of adults living in the semi-rural area

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to determine the level of healthy lifestyle behaviors and related factors in theindividuals who applied to the primary health-care center.METHODS: The study is a cross-sectional study of adults aged 18 years and over who applied to the primary health-carecenter. The sample size of the study was calculated as 992 people and 995 participants were accessible. The health-promoting behaviors of the individuals were assessed by the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP-II). In the analysis of thedata, Mann–Whitney U-test, Kruskal–Wallis tests, and multiple linear regression analysis were used to determine effectivevariables on scale score.RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 43.8±17.1. Of the total participants, 45.7% (n=455) of them were female.The median score obtained from the HPLP-II was 132. Health responsibility, nutrition, and interpersonal relations subscalescores of male were lower than female patients, while physical activity subscale scores were higher in male patients. In participants under the age of 48 years in the study, health responsibility, nutrition, interpersonal relations, and stress managementsubscale scores were higher. The scores of the married participants were higher than the areas out of the stress managementsubdimension. Stress management subscale scores were higher in individuals with primary and lower education levels interms of health care, nutrition, and interpersonal relations. Those who had good family income status and health perceptionscores also received higher scores in terms of all subscale scores.CONCLUSION: Gender, age group, marital status, education level, income level, physician-diagnosed chronic disease history, and perceived health status were found to be related to health-promoting behaviors. Educational programs should beprepared in these issues by determining the issues that individuals are lacking in protecting and developing their health andsocial needs should be taken into consideration when these programs are being prepared.