Determination of the health perception of vocational school of health services students

Abstract

The subjective perception of an individual's overall health, termed "health perception," serves as a critical measurement in health evaluations. This study aimed to ascertain the health perception of vocational school of health services students. Comprising a descriptive design, the study had a sample size of 380 students and employed the "Health Perception Scale (HPS)" for data collection. In evaluating the data, methods such as percentage, mean, standard deviation, Student T test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation analysis were utilized. The student demographic revealed that 81.3% were females, with an average age of 19.96±1.40 years, and 77.9% hailed from nuclear families. Department-wise, 21.8% were enrolled in first and emergency aid, 17.6% in physiotherapy, and in terms of year of study, 51.6% were in their second year. Additionally, 26.1% of the students reported engaging in online health-related research. The overarching finding was that scores across all sub-dimensions of the HPS were moderate. Specifically, female students displayed significantly higher scores in both the overall health perception and the importance of health sub-dimension. In light of the findings, it is advocated that academic curricula be augmented with elective courses tailored to this domain. Students' health perceptions are at a medium level. Structured training and counseling initiatives should be implemented to elevate the students' health perceptions.