Lifestyle is the way of living of individuals, families, and societies which can be healthy or unhealthy in terms of personal behaviours such as nutrition, physical activity, and stress management. A healthy lifestyle may result in better health and happiness, and in contrast, an unhealthy lifestyle may cause illness and morbidity [1].

Pender et al. indicated that health promoting behaviours (HPBs), including self-initiated actions, behaviours, and health perceptions may have an impact on individual happiness and well-being [2]. Healthcare students also suffer in term of Health and very little is being said about the empowerment of health to these students in their vigorous study timetable.

Health is taught but health promotion is not done. Health-promoting lifestyle should be promoted by setting example rather than delivering lecture [3]. The unhealthy life style and behaviour adopted during the college can have a sustaining impact on an individual’s health latter in the life [4].

Hence promoting healthy lifestyle in students can have long term positive effect, since many of the behaviours and lifestyle habits are formed during this period. These young students can be moulded in better way to cope with their life by taking responsibility for their personal health [5]. Increasing evidence indicate that if individuals can practice properly and routinely, it would result in better health and lifestyle [6].

Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS) university, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India is conducting various courses of under graduate, post graduate and super speciality, in the field of health care sciences. The undergraduate courses include MBBS, Physiotherapy, Nursing and Paramedical sciences. Most of the under graduate students entering in to the university are in the age group of 17-21 years.

University students of this age group find it difficult to anticipate and cope with the sudden increase of professional studies on one hand and at the same time on other hand, physiological changes in the body that is in the process of making an impact in the body [7]. The number of studies on health-promoting lifestyles among university students in Andhra Pradesh State are scarce.

Those students not willing to participate and students absent on the day of data collection were excluded from the study.

Prior permission is obtained from the principals of the respected courses and written informed consent was taken from the students before starting the study. The participants were approached in their class rooms at stipulated time. Self-administered questionnaire was distributed to the students and were asked to answer all the questions and return the same.

The participants were given sufficient time to answer all the questions. The questionnaire has two sections. Section A contains participant’s demographic details including name, age, course etc. Section B contains Health Promoting Life Style Profile (HPLP) - II questionnaire developed by Walker etal [5]. HPLP- II questionnaire contains 52 items and 6 subscales of health responsibility, physical activity, nutrition, spiritual growth, interpersonal relations and stress management.

Participants should respond to the Four point Likert-like-scale consisting of the options Never, Sometimes, Often and Routinely with scores 1, 2, 3 & 4 respectively. The overall HPLP scores were calculated by taking mean of all 52 questions. To calculate the score for each of the six subscales, the mean of the responses to subscale items was calculated.

The mean scores of the scale was divided into 3 levels- Good (> 3); Average (2.5-3) and poor (< 2.5). These scores are used as an index of health promoting lifestyle, with a higher score indicating a higher level.

Out of 360 1^st year students 354 students participated in the study (Response Rate – 98.3%). Majority of the participants were females 317 (89.5%) followed by 37(10.5%) males. Minimum and maximum ages of the participants was 17 and 23 years respectively with mean age of 18.4 years.

There are no males in MBBS course as it is women’s medical college. Of these students 42%, 28%, 16% and 14% were pursuing MBBS, Bachelor of Physiotherapy (BPT), BSc Nursing and BSc Paramedical courses respectively. 92% of the students belonged to Hindu religion. 80% of the children were from nuclear families and living away from their families (Hostel).

No Significant difference was noted between the groups regarding mean score of remaining sub-scales (p>0.05). Gender wise significant difference was noted between the mean scores of Physical activity subscale only (p<0.001).

Table-2: Speciality wise differences in HPLP sub-scales

Mean HPL score is 2.54 with 46.3%, 7.6% and 46% belonging to average, good and poor groups respectively. Mean Health Responsibility score is 2.18 with 18.4%, 6.2% and 75.4% belonging to average, good and poor groups respectively.

Mean Physical Activity score is 2.08 with 18.6%, 7.1%% and 74.3% belonging to average, good and poor groups respectively. Mean Nutrition score is 2.40 with 33.6%, 7.9%% and 58.8% belonging to average, good and poor groups respectively.

Mean spiritual growth score is 2.91 with 44.4%, 37.6%% and 18.1% belonging to average, good and poor groups respectively. Mean Interpersonal Relations score is 2.18 with 42.7%, 42.1%% and 15.3% belonging to average, good and poor groups respectively.

Mean Stress Management score is 2.63 with 52.5%, 15.3%% and 32.2% belonging to average, good and poor groups respectively.

Table-3: Post-hoc analysis of inter speciality differences in HPLP sub-scales

4. Dr Bhavani Yamasani: Protocol and manuscript preparation.
5. Dr Naga Vishnu Kandra: Data collection, Data entry.
6. Mr Suleman Mahammad Shareef: Data collection.

A total of 354 students participated in the study. Majority of the participants were females pursuing MBBS, Hindus, from nuclear families, living away from their homes in hostels belonging to Upper middle-class families. Mean scores for HPLP II, spiritual Growth, Interpersonal relations and Stress Management were in the average range while mean scores for Health responsibility, Physical activity and Nutrition were in the poor status. There was no overall significant difference between Specialities in HPLP scores and all subscales scores.

There was significant difference among the mean scores between the groups of Specialities regarding HPLP, Health Responsibility and Physical activity. The difference was not significant regarding remaining sub-scales. Significant difference exists between BSc Nursing and MBBS regarding mean HPLP scores. Significant difference exists between BSc Nursing and MBBS, BSc Nursing and BPT regarding mean Health responsibility sub scale. Significant difference exists between BPT and MBBS, BSc Nursing and MBBS in physical activity subscales.

This is the first study done in India among the medical and Allied health science students of medical university. This study found that health responsibility and physical activity is better among allied health science students compared to medical students.