A 3 year follow-up study of health care students’ sense of coherence and related smoking, drinking and physical exercise factors

• Published in: International journal of nursing studies Vol. 40; no. 4; pp. 383 - 388
• Main Authors: Kuuppelomäki, Merja, Utriainen, Pekka
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2003; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Addictive behaviors; Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Alcohol Drinking - psychology; Alcoholism; Attitude of Health Personnel; Attitude to Health; Biological and medical sciences; Drinking; Education; Educational Status; Exercise; Exercise - psychology; Female; Finland; Follow-Up Studies; Followup studies; Health Behavior; Health care; Health care student; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Internal-External Control; Male; Medical sciences; Nursing; Physical exercise; Pilot Projects; Polytechnic; Polytechnics; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Self Efficacy; Sense of coherence; Smoking; Smoking - psychology; Students; Students, Health Occupations - psychology; Surveys and Questionnaires; Tobacco smoking; Europe; Finland; Physical exercise; Sense of coherence; Drinking; Health care student; Polytechnic; Smoking; Human; Questionnaire; Health promotion; Health; Alcoholism; Tobacco smoking; Student; Biomedical information; Coherence; Behavior
• ISSN: 0020-7489; 1873-491X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0020-7489(02)00103-7

The purpose of the study was to describe the sense of coherence (SOC) of three groups of Finnish polytechnic students ( n=287) at the beginning of their studies and to follow it during a period of 3 year amongst the health care students ( n=63) of this group. The associations between SOC and smoking, drinking and physical exercise were also studied. The data were collected with a questionnaire which included Antonovsky's (Adv. Nurs. Sci. 1(1983)37) SOC scale. Data analysis was with SPSS statistical software. The students showed a strong sense of coherence at the beginning of their studies. Physical activity was related to the strength of SOC, but no association was found with smoking and drinking. Health care students showed a stronger SOC at the beginning of their studies than the two other groups. During the follow-up focused on the health care students, SOC weakened in 6%, remained unchanged in 65% and strengthened in 32% of the participants. Smoking, drinking and physical exercise showed no association with these changes. Future research should be focused on identifying factors that are related to SOC during education.