Health Anxiety Level and Health-Promoting and Protective Behaviors of Nursing Students

INTRODUCTION: Many situations in the life of the individual can affect health negatively, causing the individual to experience anxiety. Nurses need to be role models in order to inform and guide individuals about healthy behaviors.The study was conducted to determine the health anxiety level of nursing students and their health-promoting and protective behaviors.
METHODS: The research is descriptive and relation-seeking type. The sample consisted of 933 students in the nursing department of a university who agreed to participate in the study. Data were collected using face-to-face personal information form, Health Promotion and Protection Behaviors Scale and Health Anxiety Scale in the classroom environment. Data were analyzed with Mann–Whitney U, Kruskal–Wallis test, and Spearman correlation analysis.
RESULTS: The mean age of the students is 20.80 ± 1.59 years. The mean score of the students’ Health Anxiety is 18.32 ± 6.48, and the mean score of Health Promotive and Protective Behaviors Scale was 80.91 ± 10.36. Physical, psychosocial, and protection subscale mean scores are 3.13 ± 0.47, 3.47 ± 0.55, and 3.47 ± 0.55, respectively. There is a negative and weak level (r = −0.127; P = .001) correlation coefficient between the variables, which is statistically significant (P <.05).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The students’ health anxiety is at a low level, and their health-promoting and protective behaviors are at a moderate level. However, the students with low health anxiety have higher health-promoting and protective behaviors. It is recommended to give seminars and trainings in order for nursing students to understand the importance of health protective and improving behaviors, to transform this knowledge into behavior and to be a role model for the society.