Comparison of health behaviors among students of Iranian medical and human sciences universities

Abstract

Background and aim: Health risk behaviors are major and threatening problems of societies. The aim of this study was to determine and compare health behaviors among students of Iranian medical and human sciences universities. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 570 senior medical and human sciences students of Ilam universities (Ilam, Iran) were selected during the period between October 2015 and October 2016, using the stratified random sampling method. The research tool was the self-assessment health questionnaire which consists of personal information, understanding the concept of health and health behaviors. Descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney U, independent samples t-test and Pearson product-moment correlation tests were used in SPSS version 16.  Results: The scores obtained by both groups of medical sciences and human sciences students were low. There was no significant relationship between field of study and the score of understanding the concept of health (p=0.289); but the relationship between field of study and the score on health behaviors (p=0.001) and between health behaviors and understanding the concept of health were significant for both the students of medicine (r=0.259, p=0.01) and the students of human sciences (r=0.493, p=0.001).  Conclusion: Students’ health behaviors were not at a desirable level. Conducting interventions in the form of research projects have been recommended.