Influence of Health Literacy and Self-care Agency on Health Promotion Behavior in Nursing Students

Abstract

Objectives: This study is a descriptive study to survey the nursing college students for their health literacy, self-care agency, and health promoting behavior and to analyze their related factors. Methods: The questionnaire was administered to 228 students in two nursing colleges. Collected data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA with scheff'e test, and stepwise multiple regression. Results: In this study, nursing students health literacy 14.37 ± 2.00, self-care agency was 158.10 ± 26.62 points, health promotion behavior were 145.67 ± 35.10 points. This result was higher than the previous study. The subjects' health literacy had a significant positive correlation with self-care agency (r = 0.60, p < 0.001), a significant positive correlation with health promoting behavior (r = 0.25, p < 0.001), and self-care agency had a significant positive correlation with health promoting behavior (r = 0.39, p < 0.001). Regression analysis to identify factors affecting the health promoting behavior showed that self-care agency was the most significant factor (p = 0.001), followed by health literacy (p = 0.048). In the regression analysis, self-care agency and health literacy were significant predictors and explained 23.0% (p < 0.001) of health promoting behavior. Conclusions: Results of this study have suggested that self-care agency and health literacy were significantly related to health promoting behavior in nursing college students. Therefore, in order to improve the health promoting behaviors of nursing college students, it is necessary to improve the health literacy and self-care agency, and the systematic education strategy and education program should be developed and applied. How to cite this article: Lee SY, Suh SR. Influence of health literacy and self-care agency on health promotion behavior in nursing students. J Health Info Stat 2018;43(2):126-133. Doi: https://doi.org/10.21032/jhis.2018.43.2.126 It is identical to the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) whichpermit sunrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported. 삶의 중요성이 부각되고 있다. 이를 위해 국가에서는 국민건강증진 종 합계획을 세우고 2020년까지 '건강수명 75세'를 목표로 건강증진 정책 을 펼치고 있으며[1], 보건의료 서비스는 점차 질병의 치료에서 예방과 생활습관 관리 등을 통한 건강증진 행위의 향상을 위한 방향으로 나 아가고 있다[2]. 건강증진 행위는 개인이나 집단이 최적의 안녕 상태를 이루고 자아