Assessment of health-promoting lifestyle profile in Japanese university students

This descriptive study of 314 students was conducted to determine whether there were any relationships of their demographic variables with a health-promoting lifestyle profile.

The whole cohort of participants had an overall HPLP-II mean score of 2.50 (SD = 0.29), with the highest mean score being for interpersonal relations (3.05 ± 0.44), and the lowest mean score being for health responsibility (2.01 ± 0.53). The overall HPLP-II score of the students during the first university year was 2.59 (SD = 0.29), and this score progressively declined in their second year (2.49 ± 0.29), third year (2.47 ± 0.28), and fourth year (2.45 ± 0.30). Female students practiced significantly better health responsibility, interpersonal relations, and nutrition than males, and male students practiced significantly better physical activity than females. The students who were living with family had significantly higher nutrition scores than those not living with family.

These significant findings linking the HPLP-II, university year level, and living with family (yes/no) in university students will enable healthcare providers to develop interventions to assist students in improving their health lifestyles in the university environment and will help in devising suitable education programs.