Patterns of Risky Health Behaviors and Associations With Chronic Diseases Among Young Adult Nursing Students: A Latent Class Analysis

Background Little is known about how health behaviors cluster to form meaningful patterns that influence health outcomes in young adult nursing students. Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify the unique health behavior patterns among young adult nursing students in China and examine the associations between health behaviors and chronic diseases. Methods Using an electronic app, the achievements of an exercise target, sedentary behavior, smoking and drinking, and dietary patterns were assessed in 1,480 nursing student participants aged 18-24 years from two medical universities in Eastern China. Results A four-class model was developed using latent class analysis that included the "failure to achieve exercise target, alcohol-drinking, and insufficient fruit and vegetable group" (Group 1, n = 187, 12.6%), the "alcohol-drinking and sedentary behavior group" (Group 2, n = 290, 19.6%), the "sedentary behavior only group" (Group 3, n = 721, 48.7%), and the "failure to achieve exercise target only group" (Group 4, n = 282, 19.1%). Logistic regressions indicated that nursing students in Group 2 (odds ratio [OR] = 0.42), Group 3 (OR = 0.51), and Group 4 (OR = 0.30) were less likely to have chronic diseases than those in Group 1 after adjusting for sociodemographic variables. Conclusions The health behaviors were clustered in different patterns among young adult nursing students. Tailoring interventions to specific groups is suggested to improve health outcomes.