Health habits of nursing students: A longitudinal study of health perceptions and health habits

Aims and objectives To examine nursing students’ health habits. More specifically, the objectives were to determine whether there were any changes in their health habits during their course of study, and to understand whether the students’ perceptions about good health conditions cohered with their health‐related behaviour. Background The transition from high school to university has an undesirable effect on students’ health habits, and nursing students’ unhealthy behaviours may prevent them from helping patients improve their poor health habits. Design A longitudinal design was used. The study followed the recommendations of STROBE (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational studies in Epidemiology). Methods All students were recruited from a nursing science degree course in an Italian university. The sample consisted of 351 nursing students. Data were collected at the baseline during their entrance into the university (T0) and at the end of their third year of coursework (T3). We developed the Nursing Student Health Habits Scale, which was administered by a trained researcher. The McNemar test and the Wilcoxon signed‐rank test to evaluate the differences in health habits between T0 and T3, and a logistics model to assess the factors influencing students’ good health perceptions were used. Results From T0 to T3, there were decreases in the number of students who requested physician consultations (p = .01) and increases in those who exercised daily (p = .003). There was also a change in the nutrition model (p = .018). In the multivariate model, physician consultations for medical problems and performing physical exercise were factors influencing good health perceptions. Conclusions Future research is needed to illuminate other aspects of students’ health habits. Relevance to clinical practice Universities are advised to address these problems by reflecting on undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum content concerning health management and disease prevention.