Comparative Study of Health Behaviors of First and Last Semester Students in Amirkabir and Tehran University and Their Relations with Demographic Variables, 2007

Health behaviors are undertaken to prevent from a disease or to maintain health. According to the effect of behavior patterns on the Health of community, we aimed to compare health behaviors of first and last semester students in Amirkabir and Tehran University and their relations with demographic factors. In this descriptive -analytical study, 149 (99 first semester, 50 last) students of Tehran and Amirkabir university were recruited through stratified sampling in 2007. Data were collected by Health Behavior questionnaire and analyzed by descriptive statistics and independent t test (p≤0.05) using SPSS-16 software. There is no significant relation between first semester’s physical exercises (p=0.6) and smoke cessation (p=0.07) ­and those of last semester’s, but it is significant for proper nutrition pattern(p= 0.03)­.­Health behaviors of first semester’s is better than that of last semester’s. This survey shows that students have not good health behaviors; therefore,­ we recommend designing and performing some educational programs for promoting proper health behaviors for freshmen and other students.