Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing health promoting lifestyles in undergraduate students thus providing the basic data necessary to establish a health promoting program. The subjects of this study were 392 undergraduate students, living in Seoul, Chung-Buk, and Kangwon, during the period from May 10 to July 15, 2000. The instruments for this study were the health promoting lifestyles scale developed by Bak, Insuk(l995), the hardiness scale by Suh, Yeonok(1995), the social support scale by Su, Moonja(l988), and the perceived health status scale by Lawton et al.(l982). The results of this study are as follows; 1. The average score for health promoting lifestyles was 2.47 on 4 point scale. The health promoting lifestyles categories ‘harmony relationships’(3.08) and ‘sanitary life’(2.97) revealed higher scores, whereas scores for ‘healthy diet’(2.31), ‘exercise & activity’(2.20) and ‘professional health management’(1.48) were lower. 2. The mean score for hardiness, social support and perceived health status was 4.43(on 6 point scale), 2.91(on 4 point scale) and 3.11(on 5 point scale) respectively. 3. There was a statistically significant difference in degree of health promoting lifestyle according to religion(t=2.05, p=0.04) and spending money per month(F=2.98, p=0.03). 4. Health promoting lifestyles showed significant positive correlation with hardiness, social support, and perceived health status. 5. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the most powerful predictor of health promoting lifestyle was hardiness. Social support and perceived health status have significant effects on health promoting lifestyles. These predictive variables of health promoting lifestyles explained 24% of variance. Finally, the result of this study will provide important factors for the development of a nursing intervention program for the promotion of healthy lifestyles in Korean undergraduate students.