Relationship between healthy lifestyle behaviours and quality of life: An analysis of high school licensed athletes

Abstract

This cross sectional descriptive survey study intended to assess the healthy lifestyle behaviours of high school students by investigating whether the development of healthy lifestyle behaviours on the part of the students, lead to an increase in their quality of life. Furthermore, understanding whether engagement in sports as a licensed athlete leads to any difference in terms of healthy lifestyle behaviours and quality of life was included. Data was collected from 824 high school students using “Personal Information Form”, “Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile-II (HPLPII)”, and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL-Adolescent Form)”. The analysis included descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA), MANOVA and Pearson correlation analyses. In terms of Healthy Lifestyle Behaviour Total Score those who do sports with a license (χ=126.28) were significantly higher than those who do not (χ=116.14). The average total quality of life score was regarded as a high score. A weak correlation was observed between the healthy lifestyles and levels of quality of life. The students who engaged in sports as licensed athletes were found to have significantly higher levels of healthy lifestyle behaviours and quality of life.

Keywords: Healthy Lifestyle Behaviours; Sports; Quality of life.