Investigation of The Relationship Between Healthy Life Style Behaviors and Body Mass Index of University Students

Abstract

Aim: Obesity is one of the most important health problems in this century that affects many people of all ages and genders inthe world. Particularly, the irregular eating habits of students, their orientation towards fast-foods and their sedentary lives aresome of the reasons that trigger obesity as health problem. Therefore, more importance should be given to this topic and to getrid of obesity and lead a healthy life to prevent complications related to obesity in the population in adulthood. This study wascarried out to determine the relationship between healthy lifestyle behaviors and body mass index of university students.Method: The sample of the study included 632 students from Inonu University in the 2017-2018 academic year. A 20-questionpersonal information form, anthropometric measurements and Healthy Lifestyle Scale (HLSS) were used to collect data. Thedata was analyzed by using independent sample t-test, Mann Whitney-U test, one-way Analysis of Variance and KruskalWallis-H test.Results: The primary finding of the study is that inadequate physical activity and irregular dietary habits may affect stress levelof the students. Moreover, when the relationship between the body mass index (BMI) and HLSS sub-dimensions of universitystudents were analyzed, a statistically significant difference was found among BMI and sub-dimensions of dietary habits andhealth responsibility.Conclusion: It can be concluded that physical activity and balanced diet play key roles in health. To avoid obesity and relatedcomplications in adulthood, University students should avoid consuming fast-food and increase their physical activity levelsduring their youth