Kontakt 2007, 9(2):304-313 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2007.047

Aspects of healthy life style in future healthcare professionals: Application of theory of planned behaviourHealth and Social Sciences

Martin Horváth^*, Kateřina Ivanová

Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Lékařská fakulta, Ústav sociálního lékařství a zdravotní politiky

The work comprises results of the research of the life style in future healthcare professionals. It is particularly focused on their relationships to smoking, alcohol consumption and sport activities. The purpose of the work was to explain why a similar occurrence of negative health habits can be observed in this social group as in the common population. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) by Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen was employed as a principal theoretical starting point for the preparation of the research. The subjects of the examination, which was carried out with the help of questionnaires, were students of health studies of the Purkyně University in Olomouc and Tomáš Baťa University in Zlín (N=240). The research demonstrated the importance of the perceived control of the behaviour in the implementation of the behaviour, mainly in the case of smoking. The research of the standpoints indicates that in spite of the fact that smoking is considered as negative, even by smokers, the intensity of smoking is associated with positive attitudes to smoking as well as with refusal of negative social pressures against smoking. Thus, it is to expect that in this case, the behaviour is the decisive factor in the formation of attitudes. On the other hand, positive attitudes to the physical activity are not reflected by the frequency of the exercise. When considering mutual relationships between all these three activities, the correlation between smoking and alcohol consumption is not surprising. In the general approach to one's own health, smoking unfortunately plays the most important and negative role, where it is possible to find its negative correlation with the general assessment of the importance of one's own health, which is inter alia also manifested in the relationship between smoking and value of the Body Mass Index in smokers. The research demonstrated not only applicability of the TPB to particular components of the healthy life style, but also its capacity of offering a more integrated concept of this behaviour as whole. The research demonstrates that particularly in the case of smoking, the behaviour of individuals is most considerably affected by their inability to control this behaviour, where there is no difference between the whole population and healthcare professionals.

Keywords: Life style; theory of planned behaviour; smoking; alcohol consumption; physical activity

Received: August 24, 2007; Accepted: October 31, 2007; Published: December 21, 2007  Show citation