Study of Health Behaviours and Lifestyle Characterstics among Medical Students at Al-Azhar University, Assuit Branch

Abstract Background: Lifestyle is the way of living of individuals, families, and societies which can be healthy or unhealthy in terms of personal behaviors 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. Aim of Study: To find out the relationship between healthy lifestyle behavior variables of the study sample and students' sex and university years. Patients and Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out enrolling 426 students data were collected using interview questionnaire it consists two following sections: (1) Personal data: Age, sex, university year, living place, working status, family income, number of family member, Father's educa-tion,and mother's education, (2) Healthy lifestyle behaviors: It included seven variables: Smoking habit, dietary habits, physical exercise and self-health habits, spend free time, taking non-prescribed drugs in last month, and sleeping pattern. Period of the study from May 2019 up to the end of March 2021. Results: The mean age of the total samples was 21.5±1.5 years. The majority (76.1%) were males. The students in the age group (20-24) years had the highest percentage (85.9%), while the students in the age group (-20 years) had the lowest proportion (3.3%). There was no statistically significant difference in age between male and female students. The majority of students in the final year (45%) were males (40.1%) and females (4.9%), with the difference being statistically significant. This study revealed that 67.6% of students reported they had average family income, 70.1% and 58.8% of male and female students respectively were eating breakfast regularly, 76.6% of the second grade were eating breakfast regularly, 69.4% of male students were physically active, 76.6% of the second grade were practicing exercise routinely, 82.1% of male students perform dental examination in the last year. Conclusion: 67.1% of students were living in students hostel, male students were eating breakfast and meat and fish regularly more than female, male students were physically active more than female, 76.6% of the second grade were actively exercise than other grades.