Abstract
Background: Personal health behaviours and lifestyle habits of health professionals influence their counselling practices related to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). There are limited data on the prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle habits among medical students and the impact of acquired health knowledge throughout the curriculum. The aim of this study was to determine and compare the prevalence of modifiable behavioural NCD risk factors of medical students in different academic years at a South African tertiary institution. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study of 532 consenting medical students was conducted. Participants completed five online questionnaires regarding lifestyle behaviours (physical activity, dietary habits, smoking, alcohol consumption and sleep). Results: Lifestyle-related risk factors with the highest prevalence were poor sleep quality (66.0%), low levels of habitual physical activity (55.8%) and low-to-moderate diet quality (54.5%). There were no differences between academic years for all risk factors measured. Over 60% of the cohort had two or more NCD risk factors and this prevalence did not differ across the degree program with the acquisition of more health knowledge. Conclusion: Medical students have a high prevalence of poor sleep quality, low levels of physical activity and low-to-moderate diet quality, which does not appear to change over the course of their academic career. Sleep hygiene, regular physical activity and healthy nutrition should be targeted in intervention programmes and be more prevalent in the medical curriculum.
Share and Cite
MDPI and ACS Style
Celie, B.; Laubscher, R.; Bac, M.; Schwellnus, M.; Nolte, K.; Wood, P.; Camacho, T.; Basu, D.; Borresen, J.
Poor Health Behaviour in Medical Students at a South African University: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2024, 21, 824.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21070824
AMA Style
Celie B, Laubscher R, Bac M, Schwellnus M, Nolte K, Wood P, Camacho T, Basu D, Borresen J.
Poor Health Behaviour in Medical Students at a South African University: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2024; 21(7):824.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21070824
Chicago/Turabian Style
Celie, Bert, Ria Laubscher, Martin Bac, Marianne Schwellnus, Kim Nolte, Paola Wood, Tanya Camacho, Debashis Basu, and Jill Borresen.
2024. "Poor Health Behaviour in Medical Students at a South African University: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 21, no. 7: 824.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21070824
Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details
here.
Article Metrics
Article Access Statistics
For more information on the journal statistics, click
here.
Multiple requests from the same IP address are counted as one view.