THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEALTHY LIFE STYLE BEHAVIORS AND HEALTH LITERACY: A STUDY ON UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

In order to create healthy societies today, individuals need to understand, develop and apply health information. In this context, the question of whether there is a relationship between health literacy level and lifestyle behaviors of individuals constitutes the research problem. A questionnaire consisting of three parts was used as a data collection tool. The first part of the questionnaire consisted of a personal information form, the second part included the Adult Health Literacy Scale and the third part included the Healthy Lifestyle Behavior Scale. The study was conducted on 18.03.2019 and 10.04.2019 in a vocational school in Kastamonu with 149 students based on the questionnaire system. SPSS statistics (v.22) package program was used in the data analysis of the study. Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskall Wallis test and correlation analysis and frequency analysis were performed. There was a positive but weak relationship between health responsibility, physical activity, psychological development dimensions, healthy lifestyle behaviour scale and adult health literacy scale. There was also a positive but weak correlation between general health lifestyle behaviors and adult health literacy. According to these results, as health literacy increases, it can be said that healthy lifestyle behaviors show a positive development.