Zhuravleva I.V. Ambiguous Effect of Healthy Lifestyle Promotion on Behavioral Health Indicators of Students. Sociology of Medicine. 2025. Vol. 24. No. 3. Pp. 161-172.

Текст статьи на сайте журнала URL: https://rjsocmed.com/1728-2810/article/view/688105 (дата обращения 29.12.2025)

Abstract

The healthy lifestyle (HLS) concept has been extensively promoted over the past 10 years to improve public health. However, this did not result in the consistent improvement of the behavioral indicators in young people. This fact may open a discussion about the effectiveness of this concept implementation in some cities. The paper presents a comparative study of students’ attitudes towards health in cities with a population of over one million (Nizhny Novgorod and Ufa) in 2009-2023 in the context of existing healthy lifestyle promotion systems. This work aimed to analyze the effectiveness of healthy lifestyle promotion in two cities (regions) in 2009-2023 based on behavioral health parameters of students to identify possible areas for improvement. To achieve the aim, both studies, Student Health (2009, n = 4850) and Digital Transformation in the Life of Students (2023, n = 10,360), used customized questions developed by the Section of Social Health Problems of the Institute of Sociology of the Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The data were processed using SPSS Statistics 22. A comparison of statistics and information for the two cities with the surveys shows minor changes in students’ self-assessment of health and variable behavioral indicators (physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, search for information on a healthy lifestyle). The importance of a subject aimed at raising awareness of health in the university curriculum has slightly changed with a negative trend in both cities. A study of the effectiveness of healthy lifestyle promotion based on a behavioral analysis of students over a 14-year period does not provide grounds for concluding that health promotion in these cities is successful. However, the findings of the two studies may not be decisive for a comprehensive assessment of all healthy lifestyle promotion activities in these regions. The obtained data may be used to facilitate a deeper study of this process. An obvious promising area is encouraging the population to lead a healthy lifestyle by developing a health culture since the childhood in the general education system.