Abstract
Studies have indicated that lack of regular physical exercise and not adhering to a health-promot- ing lifestyle among student nurses are barriers to their encouraging patients to exercise. On the other hand, nurses who personally embrace physical activity are more likely to encourage their patients to improve their health through physical activity or diet. As a result, promoting an active and healthy lifestyle among student nurses is important because this has a crucial role in their subsequently encouraging healthy lifestyles among their patients. The aims of this study were to determine the physical activity levels and health-promoting lifestyles among student nurses in Malaysia, and to investigate whether there was a correlation between the physical activity levels of student nurses and their lifestyle habits. Further investigation was also carried out to correlate lifestyle habits with physical activity during weekdays and at the weekends. This study involved 189 student nurses who were pursuing Diplomas and Bachelor Degrees in local government universities. The Yamax Digi-Walker pedometer was used to measure physical activity, while the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP) II questionnaire was used to assess the health-pro- moting lifestyles of the participants. The HPLP II consisted of six sub-scales which included health responsibility, physical activity, nutrition, spiritual growth, interpersonal relations, and stress management. According to the results on physical activity, the student nurses had a mean of 8275.97 ± 2210.174 steps per day and were thus categorised as somewhat active. Additionally, the student nurses were found to be more active during weekends (M = 8389.75, SD = 2689.12) as compared to weekdays (M = 8230.46, SD = 2353.97). According to previous studies, both step counts are classified in the “somewhat active” category. Overall, the results for HPLP II showed that student nurses students in Malaysia had a positive health-promoting lifestyle with a score of 2.58 ± 0.34 on a 4-point Likert scale. The highest score was reported in spiritual growth, with a score of 2.92 ± 0.43. Meanwhile, physical activity was observed to be the lowest, with a score of 1.74 ± 0.39. The results found no correlation between physical activity and overall health-promoting lifestyle among student nurses in Malaysia (r = 0.06, n = 189, p
Highlights
The first part of the study collected detailed descriptive information on the level of physical activity and healthpromoting lifestyle across different subscales, and the amount of calories consumed by the student nurses during the week
The current study was aimed at determining the physical activity level and health-promoting lifestyle among student nurses in Malaysia and to investigate whether there was a correlation between the physical activity levels with the lifestyle habit among nursing students
The findings from this study showed that their level of physical activity was lower than optimum, highlighting the need to encourage student nurses to be more active
Summary
The focus is on combating non-communicable diseases such as heart diseases, cancer, and diabetes. All these diseases are very much associated with the changing lifestyles of Malaysians. The National Morbidity Survey reported that in 2009, two out of five Malaysian adults were obese [1]. This alarming fact has prompted the Malaysian government to introduce many programs to promote healthier lifestyles, and especially to be physically more active. What is clear is that the increasing number of obese Malaysians and patients with heart diseases, cancer, and diabetes indicate that these initiatives have largely failed to achieve their objectives
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
