Health behaviors of nursing students: a longitudinal study

To ascertain the degree to which a health science curriculum may influence health-related behaviors among students, nine selected health behaviors of 52 undergraduate nursing students were studied for 3 consecutive years and compared to those of a similar group of education students. In addition, the health behaviors of both student groups were compared to those of the general population. During the study, the nursing students had no significant alterations in the observed health behaviors, and no significant differences were observed between the health behaviors of the two groups of students. Both groups manifested certain health behaviors that were significantly different from the general population. However, nursing students were observed more frequently to be significantly different from the general population. A 3-year nursing curriculum may have facilitated the adoption of some personal health behaviors, but the time demands of academic life may have induced students to reduce time-consuming health behaviors, such as getting enough sleep, eating breakfast, and exercising.