The association between Colombian medical students' healthy personal habits and a positive attitude toward preventive counseling: cross-sectional analyses

Table 1 Personal habits, attitude toward preventive counseling, and perception of school environment among Colombian medical students

	1st year (n = 407)	5th year (n = 254)
Characteristics	%	%	p-value
Body mass index (Kg/m²)
<18.5	11	9	0.16
18.5 – 24.9	80	78	0.64
25 – 30	8	11	0.09
>30	1	2	0.16
Students' reported healthy habits
Consuming ≥ 5 daily servings of fruits and/or vegetables	41	40	0.80
≥ 150 min/week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity	51	50	0.73
Non-smoking^a	83	75	0.02
Non-binge drinking^b	57	42	0.002
Non-heavy drinking^c	88	82	0.08
Overall healthy habits^d	12	8	0.13
Students with a positive attitude^e toward always counseling patients about:
Nutrition	93	89	0.06
Physical activity	85	91	0.02
Smoking	89	89	0.90
Alcohol consumption	78	80	0.51
Weight control	90	94	0.09
All healthy habits^f	68	73	0.19
Students' perception of the school environment as promoting each healthy habit:
Nutrition	43	22	<0.0001
Physical activity	46	30	<0.0001
Smoking	43	47	0.36
Alcohol consumption	42	28	0.0003

^a Smokers: Students reporting current use of tobacco and having smoked ≥ 100 cigarettes during their lives, ^b Binge drinkers: those who consume ≥ 5 drinks of alcohol on a single occasion, ^c Heavy drinkers: women who consume an average of >1 daily drink or men consuming an average of >2 daily drinks, ^d Students with overall healthy habits: those who report doing ≥ 150 minutes a week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, consuming ≥ 5 servings of fruit and/or vegetables a day, and being nonsmokers and non-heavy or non-binge drinkers, ^e Positive attitude toward counseling: students that agreed or strongly agreed that if is important for physicians to counsel patients about each individual habit, ^f All healthy habits: nutrition, physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, weight control.
Note, p-value: chi-square for 1st vs. 5th year differences.

ISSN: 1471-2458