J Korean Acad Fam Med.  1997 Dec;18(12):1469-1482.

Health Behaviors and Health Perception among medical and non-medical students

• Kim DH
• Suh YS
• Shin DH
• Jang YS
• Kim EH
• Song KH

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The interest of medicine was moved from disease treatment to disease prevention and health promotion. Especially, there has been marked increased interest in health promotion recently. Perception and health behaviors held or acquired during medical training can influence the acceptance and prevention strategies. This exploratory study surveyed medical and non-medical student to assess both preventive health behaviors and perception, to find relations of personal behaviors and corresponding perception.
METHODS
This survey were conducted 140 medical students and 131 non-medical students in one big city. Data were obtained by self-reported questionnaire. Weschler survey was adapted to assess perception toward preventive behavior, and Fantastic lifestyle was adapt,ed to assess health behavior.
RESULTS
Among the questionnaire of perception of preventive behavior, quitting cigarette smoking ranked highest frequency as very important in medical student. In non-medical student, use seat-belt is ranked highest frequency. Mean score of FANTASTIC lifestyle is 29.98 in medical student, 28.86 in non-medical. The result show significant relationship between st,udent-reported behavior and corresponding perception in 6 qestionnaire that is eat breakfast, moderate or no alcohol use, eliminate smoking, use seat belt, limit coffee, get seven hours sleep.
CONCLUSIONS
In comparing medical and non-medical students, health perception and health behavior were no significant difference. Overall, the result indicated that the preponderance of respondents that is engaging in health behaviors are high in health perception.

MeSH Terms

Breakfast
Coffee
Surveys and Questionnaires
Health Behavior*
Health Promotion
Humans
Life Style
Seat Belts
Smoke
Smoking
Students, Medical
Coffee
Smoke