Health habits of nursing versus non-nursing students: a longitudinal study

As our culture shifts from a sickness repair system to a health promotion and disease prevention system, nurses need to take more responsibility for practicing positive health behaviors. The problem addressed in this study was "Does exposure to nursing theory content and client interactions make any difference in the regular practice of positive health behaviors in nursing students when compared to non-nursing students?" The purpose of this study was to determine if nursing students practice healthy life styles that would help prepare them to be effective advocates for health promotion and disease prevention. The Health Habits Inventory (HHI) was used in this two-year longitudinal study to compare health habits between 71 nursing and 83 non-nursing students. There was a statistically significant difference between nursing and non-nursing students in time 1 (t = 4.91, p < .001) and time 2 (t = 3.59, p < .001) with nursing students scoring higher in health habits. Nursing students improved significantly from time 1 to time 2 (t = 2.05, p = .021) whereas nonnursing students did not improve (t = .94, p = .175). In specific behaviors, nursing students improved in eating breakfast regularly, performing monthly self breast and testicular exams, reading food labels, wearing seatbelts, and exercising at least three times a week. Implications include the importance of emphasizing self health care in nursing curricula to promote healthy life styles of nursing students who can subsequently become role models in their professional practice.