Estilos de vida dos estudantes do ensino superior: Contributos para a promoção da saúde

Abstract

Background: The transition to higher education is a period of change during which students have new experiences that influence their lifestyles. Objective: To identify the domains of higher education students’ lifestyles that require intervention. Methodology: This cross-sectional descriptive correlational study was conducted with 522 higher education students. The Fantastic Lifestyle Assessment questionnaire was used, and statistical analysis was conducted using the IBM SPSS Statistics software – version 25.0. Results: The study participants had a median age of 22, and 78.4% were women. Of the 522 students in the sample, 17.8% were overweight and 6.3% were obese, 14.4% were diagnosed with a chronic disease, 35.6% had Very Good lifestyles, and 20.1% had Good lifestyles. The domains Health and sexual behavior (x-= 8.97/24) and Work/type of personality (x-= 6.82/12) obtained negative scores. Significant differences were found in the questionnaire’s total score (U =19785.00; p < 0.05) when considering the variables Gender, with female students having better lifestyles (x-= 89.16; SD = 12.75) and Course year (H = 18.80; p < 0.01). Conclusion: Assessing higher education students’ lifestyles offers the possibility to describe the intervention foci and guide the health promotion interventions.