Healthy Lifestyle among Ha'il University Students, Saudi Arabia

 

Fahad D. Algahtani

Public Health department, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, University of Ha'il, Ha'il, KSA.

 

ABSTRACT

 

This study was conducted to determine the healthy lifestyle behaviors of students of the University of Ha'il in using various variables. This descriptive-analytical investigation is made out of 335 students from the University of Ha'il, Saudi Arabia and included information about lifestyle patterns in terms of age, sex, BMI, study field and year of study. About 33.8% of university students followed unhealthy eating patterns and there was no difference concerning their eating habits. Students' health responsibility was identified with the distinctive variable, which was too less with an undesirable score. The results showed that the awareness of university students on the rules of intermittent medicinal assessment was undesirable in all study samples.

 

INTRODUCTION

Despite young people’s lifestyle awareness becomes clear that has beneficial effects on health, they do not have healthy life habits [1]. People's lifestyles have changed from active daily movement and good dietary consumption to sedentary and inactive mobility and elevated intake of fat and sugar [2]. Healthy lifestyle patterns are considered one of the health-related practices that affect the performance and the future health of the youth [3]. Healthy lifestyle behaviors are not only aimed at preventing a disease or illness but also at improving the overall health of a person [4]. Improving health and a healthy lifestyle is important for societies that are trying to advance and develop strategies for sustainable development, and refrain from allocating budgets to lifestyle diseases [5]. There is an increase in chronic diseases in developing countries that emphasize the significance of health services which should be done in a manner that protects endures and improves health [3, 6, 7]. Many chronic diseases could be caused due to the immobile lifestyle, where healthy lifestyle habits can decrease diseases [8-10]. Relationship of low-mobility lifestyle and disorders such as cardiovascular disease, low coping ability with stress, depression, low productivity, and absence from the work environment has been indicated [11]. Having healthy lifestyles such as exercise, a healthy diet [12], quitting smoking, sun exposure, stress management, and healthy sleep patterns have a great role in the prevention of different diseases [13] such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and some types of cancer [14-16]. The modification of lifestyle is essential for physicians offering family care [17]. Nutrition is described as the selection and management of the individual's meals and the value of his food. The health level of students becomes a potential social problem and needs intervention. Stress management is the monitoring of physiological and psychological resources and their activation to control and reduce its severity [18]. There is no room for doubt on the significance of periodic medical examination [19]. It is probably much more prevalent in ordinary social circumstances that students lack healthy lifestyle habits as a consequence of extended studying hours, difficulties in organizing rest and activity time, and watching TV for lengthy moments [20]. Students at universities are the population most probable to suffer from nutritional illness, lack of mobility, and increasing the incidence of smoking. Bad behavior changes are critical in protecting and improvement of student health. Scientific research conducted in the Gulf region indicates the growing of chronic diseases among students as a result of incorrect health practices and lifestyle modifications owing to many modifications in the socioeconomic status in this region [21]. The significance of the research is due to reports showing greater chronic disease hazards among university students. Therefore, the research aimed to monitor the personal, nutritional, life and health risks of University of Ha'il students in humanitarian and health colleges to profit from the research outcomes to conduct educational programs and rising the health awareness at the university levels.

 

MATERIALS AND METHODS

 

A cross-sectional/descriptive and analytical approach was used to suit the study in which 335 students from the University of Ha'il, Saudi Arabia participated; the study was conducted using a valid survey. A lifestyle questionnaire was prepared and applied to evaluate healthy lifestyle patterns. Data was collected from March 2018 to May 2019 with the aid of the web application. The prepared questionnaire contains general questions about the students (age, sex, BMI, study field, and year of study). 192 (57.31%) questions were answered by male students while 143 (42.69%) were answered by female students. The survey is accompanied by two lists (20 questions of each), which were collected and prepared from previous studies [1, 3, 4, 20, 22, 23]. The questionnaire contained questions of multiple choices that were calculated based on a three-point Likert scale. The scores of 1-1.67 were regarded as undesirable, scores of 1.67-2.34 were deemed semi-desirable, and scores of 2.34-3 were deemed desirable. The survey was used to assess the difference between males and females in health-promoting lifestyle in University of Ha'il, to determine the effect of socioeconomic factors on health-promoting lifestyle, to assess the difference in lifestyle behaviors between first and last year students and to assess the difference in lifestyle patterns between students of health colleges and students of humanitarian colleges. The age of the research participants ranged from 16 to 26 years old and the participant should be registered as a student at the University of Ha'il. SPSS 21.0 software was used for the statistical analysis of the compiled data through surveys.

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

 

The university aims at spreading knowledge, developing it and contributing to the advancement of thought as well as carrying out scientific research, encouraging it and employing it in facing the challenges of society and solving its problems. One of the goals of the university is to build the personality of the students, develop their skills and launch their potential to take responsibility and serve the community. Therefore, it requires the building of a true university student physically, mentally, psychologically and socially as they are the main axes of health. The university has a role to play in pushing for a healthy life for the student to encourage him to unleash his energies to achieve the required responsibilities, as university’s youth are the tools of change towards the sustainable development of society.

Healthy nutrition and drinking enough water daily are important parts of a healthy lifestyle that are overlooked by many people who believe that nutrition is linked to their desires and is often influenced by societal norms. The study sample was asked a number of questions, including the main meal. Dinner was the largest with about 42.1% and consisted of a large proportion of meat and meat products. When asked about the consumption of vegetables and fruits in their daily diet, 34.6% of the students did not consume vegetables and fruits, and 33.8% consumed very little vegetables and fruits [24-26]. Also, the statistical results in this study showed that the average daily drinking water did not statistically differ significantly between all the studied variables, which came at very low averages and achieved an undesirable score [27]. The investigation likewise demonstrated that the average of all scores with respect to healthy sleep habits for all participants identified with diverse variables was a semi-desirable score and there were no statistically significant differences (p˃ 0.05) in all studied variables.

Most students said they didn't smoke. The percentage difference representation of smokers among students of both colleges, however, was 15.9% in favor of health students. In terms of the first year and last year variables, students of last year smoked more with statistically significant differences (Table 3) [20].

Our study demonstrated that the average total score regarding students' health responsibility identified with the distinctive variable is too less, i.e. 1.19 out of 3.00, with a statistically significant difference (p≤ 0.005), achieving undesirable score. This data complies with that found by [3].

When the study sample was asked about the practice of periodical medical examination (on-time vaccination, eye examination, medical examination, blood glucose testing, blood pressure monitoring, and lipid profile screening), all of the results were undesirable (less than 1.67) based on the three-point Likert scale (Tables 1 and 3) and there was no significant difference in terms of gender and BMI variables (P˃0.05). The results of the dental examination showed significant differences in terms of gender variable (P˃0.05) with a semi-desirable scale in favor of female students. This affirms the decrease of care among students about the practice of periodical medical examination and intends to put resources into their health. Furthermore, those outcomes concurred with what was accounted for by [28], which indicated that students in Pakistan had awareness about the information and practice of intermittent medicinal assessment, yet lack the practice.

Fig. 1. Distribution of participants according to gender.

 

Fig. 2. Distribution of participants according to the study field.

 

 

Fig. 3. Distribution of participants according to their age.

 

Table 1: Healthy lifestyle differences between Humanitarian and Health Colleges.

		Gender	N/%	Mean	Std. Deviation	P-value
Nutrition	Humanitarian Colleges	Female	110	1.6545	.68317	.482
		Male	64	1.7344	.71807
	Health Colleges	Female	33	1.6364	.65279
		Male	127	1.7795	.67745
Drinking enough water	Humanitarian Colleges	Female	110	1.5455	.72487	.560
		Male	64	1.4531	.66499
	Health Colleges	Female	33	1.3636	.54876
		Male	128	1.4922	.67575
Healthy Sleep Habits	Humanitarian Colleges	Female	110	2.1273	.71817	.344
		Male	64	2.2031	.59574
	Health Colleges	Female	33	2.3333	.69222
		Male	125	2.2480	.61770
Smoking	Humanitarian Colleges	Female	110	2.9273	.32366	.000
		Male	64	2.4844	.85435
	Health Colleges	Female	32	2.7813	.60824
		Male	128	2.3750	.86943
Health responsibility	Humanitarian Colleges	Female	110	1.2636	.58541	.005
		Male	64	1.1719	.41993
	Health Colleges	Female	32	1.1875	.47093
		Male	125	1.0560	.26348
On-time vaccination	Humanitarian Colleges	Female	114	1.2982	.69039	.420
		Male	59	1.3559	.68889
	Health Colleges	Female	35	1.3143	.71831
		Male	124	1.4516	.79995
Eye examination	Humanitarian Colleges	Female	114	1.4474	.75366	.105
		Male	59	1.4237	.74749
	Health Colleges	Female	35	1.4857	.78108
		Male	124	1.2500	.61980
Medical examination	Humanitarian Colleges	Female	114	1.3333	.61926	.057
		Male	59	1.2712	.48532
	Health Colleges	Female	35	1.3143	.52979
		Male	124	1.1613	.36929
Blood glucose testing	Humanitarian Colleges	Female	114	1.3158	.58470	.972
		Male	59	1.2881	.52689
	Health Colleges	Female	35	1.3429	.59125
		Male	124	1.3226	.57803
Dental examination	Humanitarian Colleges	Female	114	1.7456	.76206	.000
		Male	59	1.4068	.56075
	Health Colleges	Female	35	1.6000	.81168
		Male	124	1.3548	.61411
Blood pressure monitoring	Humanitarian Colleges	Female	114	1.4035	.64793	.203
		Male	59	1.3898	.64372
	Health Colleges	Female	35	1.4857	.74247
		Male	124	1.2742	.51543
Lipid profile screening	Humanitarian Colleges	Female	114	1.2544	.52901	.400
		Male	59	1.1525	.36263
	Health Colleges	Female	35	1.1714	.38239
		Male	124	1.1774	.38357

Table 2: Healthy lifestyle with different study years.

		Gender	N	Mean	Std. Deviation	P-value
Nutrition	first year students	Female	36	1.6389	.68255	.303
		Male	23	1.9565	.56232
	last year students	Female	34	1.7059	.62906
		Male	105	1.8095	.72185
Drinking enough water	first year students	Female	36	1.5000	.69693	.879
		Male	23	1.5652	.78775
	last year students	Female	33	1.6061	.70442
		Male	105	1.5048	.65227
Healthy Sleep Habits	first year students	Female	36	2.1667	.69693	.478
		Male	22	2.1364	.63960
	last year students	Female	34	2.0882	.75348
		Male	105	2.2667	.57624
Smoking	first year students	Female	34	2.9412	.23883	.000
		Male	23	2.6522	.71406
	last year students	Female	34	2.9118	.37881
		Male	105	2.2857	.90633
Health responsibility	first year students	Female	34	1.1765	.45863	.004
		Male	23	1.0435	.20851
	last year students	Female	34	1.4545	.75378
		Male	105	1.1373	.39899

 

Table 3: Healthy lifestyle with a different body-mass index.

	BMI	N	Mean	Std. Deviation	P-value
Nutrition	Underweight	27	1.4815	.70002	.002
	Normal	146	1.8219	.66109
	Overweight	91	1.7802	.66336
	Obese	70	1.5000	.69678
Drinking enough water	Underweight	27	1.4444	.64051	.781
	Normal	147	1.5306	.71487
	Overweight	90	1.4667	.65686
	Obese	70	1.4429	.65132
Healthy Sleep Habits	Underweight	25	2.0800	.75939	.497
	Normal	147	2.1905	.65515
	Overweight	91	2.2857	.63746
	Obese	69	2.1884	.64797
Smoking	Underweight	27	2.6667	.67937	.112
	Normal	146	2.5068	.82417
	Overweight	91	2.7253	.66776
	Obese	69	2.6957	.67092
Health responsibility	Underweight	27	1.1111	.42366	.704
	Normal	145	1.1448	.42458
	Overweight	87	1.1494	.41843
	Obese	66	1.2121	.54109
On-time vaccination	Underweight	27	1.3704	.74152	.438
	Normal	145	1.3517	.72199
	Overweight	86	1.3372	.71308
	Obese	59	1.5254	.85814
Eye examination	Underweight	27	1.5556	.84732	.151
	Normal	145	1.4414	.78063
	Overweight	86	1.2558	.57775
	Obese	59	1.3559	.66340
Medical examination	Underweight	27	1.2222	.50637	.825
	Normal	148	1.2432	.50334
	Overweight	86	1.2674	.49526
	Obese	58	1.3103	.53662
Blood glucose testing	Underweight	27	1.2963	.46532	.734
	Normal	149	1.2953	.56357
	Overweight	86	1.3605	.61190
	Obese	58	1.3793	.61637
Dental examination	Underweight	27	1.4815	.64273	.339
	Normal	149	1.5906	.74447
	Overweight	86	1.5349	.66328
	Obese	58	1.3966	.64725
Blood pressure monitoring	Underweight	26	1.2308	.42967	.276
	Normal	148	1.3581	.63898
	Overweight	86	1.4767	.66380
	Obese	57	1.3509	.58221
Lipid profile screening	Underweight	26	1.2692	.45234	.589
	Normal	148	1.1824	.43701
	Overweight	86	1.2442	.48352
	Obese	58	1.1724	.38104

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the outcomes of this study demonstrated that healthy lifestyle behaviors of students of the University of Ha'il were in the challenge as about 33.8% of university students followed unhealthy eating patterns and there was no difference concerning their eating habits. Students' health responsibility identified with the distinctive variables is too less with an undesirable score. The results showed that the awareness of university students on the rules of intermittent medicinal assessment was undesirable in all study samples.

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

 

The author acknowledges the Public Health Department, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, University of Ha'il, Ha'il, KSA for their cooperation.

 

Conflict of interest

None.

 

Ethical approval

This study does not involve any human or animal testing; this study was approved by the Scientific Research Ethics Committee, University of Ha'il; this study conforms to the Declaration of Helsinki, US.

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