Predicting Factors among Healthy Lifestyle Beliefs, Behaviors and Mental Health Indicators in Taiwanese Adolescents

Aims: The prevalence of overweight adolescents in Taiwan has dramatically increased in recent years. A survey shows that 66.6% of adolescents do not get the recommended amount of vegetables and fruit (i.e., two portions of fruit and three portions of vegetables per day each week). The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between individual understanding of activity and nutrition, healthy lifestyle beliefs, perceived difficulty of efficacy in reaching health goals, mental health variables, and healthy lifestyle behavior on BMI in Taiwanese adolescents.

Study Design: This is a theoretically-based and cross-sectional research study.

Place and Duration of Study: Data were conducted from two middle schools in Taiwan between Sep 2011 to November 2011.

Methodology: We used a convenience sampling to recruit 453 adolescents with a mean age of 13.42 years. The instruments used were demographics, Beck Youth Inventory II (Depression, Anxiety, Self-concept), Healthy Lifestyle Belief Scale, Healthy Lifestyle Behavior Scale, Perceived Difficulty Scale, Nutrition and Activity Knowledge Scales. We conducted path analysis to test our theoretical model by using Mplus 5.21.

Results: Fit indices included χ2 (23, 453) =33.75, P= .05, CFI=.98, and RMSEA=.03, indicating that the model fit the model well. Healthy lifestyle beliefs had a significant positive effect on healthy lifestyle behaviors (β= .41, P= .01). Moreover, there was a significant negative relationship between perceived difficulty and healthy lifestyle behaviors (β= -.54, P= .01).

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that promoting positive beliefs about healthy lifestyle among adolescents may facilitate healthy lifestyle changes and help them perceive less difficulty in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. School nurses and health professionals in Taiwan need to coordinate essential resources and implement theoretical-based educational program that address issues on increasing adolescents’ healthy lifestyle beliefs.