Abstract

INTRODUCTION

This study aimed at determining the relationship between the health locus of control and healthy lifestyle behaviors of nurses working at intensive care clinics as well as surgery.

METHODS

The sample of descriptive research was the nurses working at surgery and intensive care units of Izmir Tepecik Training and Research Hospital (n: 223). In this study, the sampling was not specialized as all voluntary nurses present were incorporated into the research other than those who were absent as well as on leave for health consideration within the dates of data collection. The data were collected between May 2 and May 30, 2014 by means of using Personal Information Form, Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale (HLBS) and Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale (MHLCS). Assessment of data was performed using SPSS 15,0 (Statistical Programme for Social Sciences) package software.

RESULTS

In this study, the total mean of HLBS score was 114,21±17,41 while the other means of sub-dimensional scores were 33,87+5,65 in self-realization, 21,37±4,55 in health responsibility, 9,49±3,08 in exercise, 15,51±3,27 in nutrition, 18,37±3,71 in interpersonal support, and 15,57±3,19 in stress management. Regarding to the means sub-dimensional scores of MHLCS, the means scores belonging to the strongest sub-dimension, the inner sub-dimension and the chance subdimension were found to be 10,44±11,00, 13,76±14,10, and 9,54±9,00, respectively.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

In present study, the healthy lifestyle behaviors of the nurses were moderate, while the mean scores of MHLCS were found to be low. In addition, a poor significance level of correlation between HLBS and MHLCS was found.