Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile Assessment among Medical and Nursing Students of Central India.

The Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile-II (HPLP-II) is a western-developed questionnaire that assesses 52 health-promoting behaviours (HPB) over six subscales. The purpose of this research was to identify and assess all six components of the Health-Promoting lifestyle Profile among medical and nursing students in central India (AIIMS and Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal). A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted on 619 medical (MBBS/MD/MS) and nursing students of AIIMS and GMC, Bhopal. The online questionnaires were provided to them which consisted of questions from the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II. Health-promoting behaviors differed by gender in MBBS students particularly with respect to Health-Promoting Lifestyle (p=0.009), Health Responsibility (p=0.021), Nutrition (p=0.046) and Physical Activity (p=0.004). Males had significantly higher scores then females. But the difference between males and females was not significant in PG (MD and MS) students. Scores of five out of six scales (except spiritual growth) were found to be higher among nursing students in comparison with medical students (MBBS, MD and MS). These results will raise concerns about lifestyle behaviours and encourage medical and nursing students to evaluate their own health-promoting lifestyles. Physical exercise and diet should be prioritised, particularly for medical students.