Perceived Importance of Health and Body Mass Index Difference in Health Behaviors Among College Students

• In Event: Health and Well-Being in Adolescence

Abstract

This study investigates the interactive effects of body mass index (BMI) and the perceived importance of health on health behaviours among college students in Taiwan. The cross-sectional survey was conducted in 12 universities using a sample of 334 college students. Amos 6.0 was used to perform confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to identify the best measurement models for Health Behaviours Scale. The study found that Taiwanese college students scored the lowest on sleep behaviors. There was an interaction effect between BMI and perceived importance of health on exercise behaviors but not on eating and sleep behaviors. Significantly, the findings revealed that perceived importance of health has a greater effect than BMI on exercise behaviours.

Authors

• Wanchen Hsu, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology

• Chia-Hsun Chiang, National Sun Yat-Sen University