Health Related Lifestyle Behaviors among Undergraduate Medical Students in Patan Academy of Health Sciences in Nepal

Objectives: This descriptive study of 219 undergraduate medical students at Patan Academy of Health Sciences in Nepal was conducted to evaluate the relationships of their demographic variables with a health-promoting lifestyle profile. Methods: The Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP) questionnaire was used to study students’ lifestyles. We compared the HPLP scores according to gender, residence type, school background and year of study. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple comparison test were conducted to identify significant differences among university year (first, second, third and fourth) groups. Multiple regression analysis was used to analyze the effects of various demographics on the overall HPLP score and the six health-promoting lifestyle subscales. Results: The overall HPLP mean score of participants was 2.60 ± 0.29, with the highest mean scores being for spiritual growth (2.99 ± 0.42) and interpersonal relations (2.90 ± 0.35), and the lowest mean scores being for health responsibility (2.39 ± 0.39) and physical activity (2.25 ± 0.54), respectively. The overall HPLP score of the students was the highest for the first year students at 2.65 ± 0.26. The male students had a better overall HPLP score, although female students obtained better score in some subscales such as health responsibility, interpersonal relations and nutrition. The students from a public school background had significantly higher scores for health responsibility, physical activity and stress management than those who graduated school level education from a private school. Conclusions: The results of this study reveal that the status of health promoting behaviors among the students was acceptable with ample room for improvement. Implementation of health education and promotion programs with an emphasis on the different dimensions of health lifestyle behaviors is recommended.

Disability: A Case Screening Program Approach

Disability is an accident waiting to happen in population. Large numbers of population in world are disabled and its prevalence is on the rise. Disabled people have to face two additional challenges namely, limitation in body and social stigmatization on top of other social happening to general public. The stipulation of disability will be subjective because social and physical condition is directly related to it. The study was also envisioned to develop a disability screening approach. The objective was to focus on how disabled has been included in the government’s health plans in Nepal. The study has presented data of 894 disabled people from randomly selected seven VDCs of Makwanpur district. The total population in studied VDCs was 87,502. The study was conducted in coordination with local governing bodies and health development partners during August-October in 2012. The study revealed 1.02 percent prevalence of disability among study population. The majority were suffering physical disability (60.6 percent) followed by deaf (19.7 percent). Based on age group, young adults (15 - 19 years) group was more (31 percent) vulnerable. Out of total, the number of male was higher due to their high exposure in external environment and risk taking behaviour.