Analysis of health promoting lifestyle behaviors and associated factors among nurses at a university hospital in Turkey

OBJECTIVE: To determine the health promotion lifestyle behaviors (HPLB) of nurses working in a university medical faculty hospital in Turkey and to investigate the factors related behaviors.

METHODS: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted in Ankara University Medical Faculty Hospital, Ankara, Turkey, between January 2008 and 23 January 2009. Two hundred and eighty nurses were recruited randomly out of 550 female nurses. However, 10 of them were removed from the research due to the annual leave. The study was conducted among 270 nurses. Health promotion lifestyle behaviors were evaluated using Personal Information Form and Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP II). Data were analyzed using independent t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA), Kruskall Wallis, Tukey test by SPSS Version 16 package with significance level of p<0.05.

RESULTS: The highest sub-scale score with 26.0+/-5.00 was detected from self-realization and the lowest was detected from physical activity with 13.9+/-4.50 points. Nurses’ self-realization scores differed significantly by perception of health status (p=0.029). Income status differed significantly by health responsibility (p=0.049), interpersonal relations (p=0.032), stress management (p=0.027) subscales, and total score of the HPLP II (p=0.043). The physical activity subscale score of the HPLP II differed significantly by marital status (p=0.036) and situation of having a child but singles scored better than married (p=0.001).

CONCLUSION: Low exercise score indicated the need for intervention programs for the nurses surveyed. New regulations aim to raise the income level of nurses should be applied.