Health knowledge and health-risk behaviours among undergraduate students in the faculty of community and health sciences at a university in the Western Cape

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Date

2025

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Publisher

University of the Western Cape

Abstract

Health-risk behaviours are major causes of global mortality and morbidity, and they can be as a result of poor health knowledge. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between health knowledge and health-risk behaviours among undergraduate students in the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences at a university in the Western Cape. A quantitative, cross-sectional, and correlational study was conducted with 356 conveniently sampled undergraduate female and male students, aged 18 years and older, at the University of the Western Cape. A reliable and validated questionnaire was used to measure health knowledge and health-risk behaviours. The data was collected on the following eight health domains, namely, nutrition, physical activity, alcohol consumption, smoking, sexual behaviour, stress, violence and sleep. SPSS version 29 was used to capture and analyse the data. Descriptive statistics, non-parametric statistical tests (Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests) and the Chi-squared test were used to analyse the data

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Keywords

Health-risk behaviours, Health knowledge, Undergraduate students, Community and Health Sciences, Western Cape

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