Perceived social support and health related behaviors at the school of health students

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine perceived social support with health related behaviors and how perceived social support was affecting of health related behaviors at the students who were attending the department of the nursing school of health. Methods: The Research was made by attending and can be reached with 185 students in Hitit University of School of Health in June 2011.The data of the study, was collected after receiving written permission of the management of School of Health and verbal confirmation of students who agreed to participate in the study. The data occur from a survey form which was consisting of a 25 items questionnaire asking socio-demographic characteristics and health-related behaviors (smoking and alcohol use, diet, physical activity status), and the Scale of Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale (Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support MSPSS =) prepared by researcher. The analysis of the data was obtained by using the SPSS 15.0 program with the percentile, mean, Independent Samples t Test and One-Way ANOVA test (post-hoc Tukey test). P <0.05 was considered significant values in the analysis. Findings: The mean MPSS score of students were 63.15±19 07. Students whose economic status were 'good' level had higher scores of all sub-scale scores and who were using cigarette and alcohol had higher environment social support scores but there was no significant difference found between the groups. Discussion and Conclusion: It was found that perceived social support by students was in good level in general. The variables such as accommodation place after started university and the economic situation with the health behaviors such as smoking and using alcohol were determined to be effective on social support scores.