Emotional Intelligence and Health Risk Behaviors in Nursing Students

To explore the association between emotional intelligence (EI) and risky health behaviors in nursing students at the University of Oviedo (Spain).

This cross-sectional study of 275 students used a validated questionnaire to measure EI level, nine risky behaviors (smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, illicit drug use, unhealthy diet, being overweight, sedentarism, risky sun exposure, occupational risk, and unsafe sex), and other factors that may influence EI.

Students with the highest EI score had a lower probability of drinking too much alcohol (odds ratio [OR], 0.31; 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.19, 0.67]), eating too few fruits and vegetables (OR, 0.60; 95% CI [0.34, 0.99]), and having unsafe sex (OR, 0.10; 95% CI [0.01, 0.74]). A dose-response effect was found for those three behaviors (p for trend <0.02).

Poor EI is associated with excessive alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet, and unsafe sex. Training nursing students about EI could improve health behaviors, and thus the role of nurses as health promoters.