Health Behaviours and Sense of Coherence Among Female Students of Selected Polish Universities of the Third Age

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to answer 4 research questions: 1. What is the state of health behaviours among female U3A (University of the Third Age) students? 2. What is the sense of coherence among the students of U3As? 3. What is the meaning of the conducted research for health promotion? The study was conducted by means of a diagnostic survey. For the assessment of selected indicators, Juczyński’s Inventory of Health Behaviours and Antonovsky’s Life Orientation Questionnaire were used. The study included 104 female students of universities with varying organisational and legal forms. In each of the 3 U3As, a similar state of health behaviour is maintained, interpreted as average. It has been shown that respondents exhibit a mean sense of coherence. Elderly people received the highest scores in the comprehensibility component, whereas the lowest in the 3 groups tested regarding the meaningfulness component. In research, it has been shown that there is a correlation between the sense of coherence and the pro-health behaviours of the female students.