Lifestyle and sense of coherence: A comparative analysis among university students in different areas of knowledge

Background: The concept of health has undergone profound changes.
Lifestyle Medicine (LSM) consists of therapeutic approaches that focus on
the prevention and treatment of diseases. It follows that the quality of
life of university students directly affects their health and educational
progress. Experimental Methodology: Socioeconomic, lifestyle (LS), and
sense of coherence (SOC) questionnaires were administered to college
students from three different areas. The results were analyzed for
normality and homogeneity, followed by ANOVA variance analysis and Dunn
and Tukey post hoc test for multiple comparisons. Spearman's
correlation coefficient evaluated the correlation between lifestyle and
sense of coherence; p values < 0.05 were considered statistically
significant.  Results: The correlation between LS and SOC was
higher among males and higher among Medical and Human sciences students
compared to Exact sciences. Medical students' scores were higher than
Applied sciences and Human sciences students on the LS questionnaire.
Exact science students' scores on the SOC questionnaire were higher
than Human sciences students. In the LS areas related to alcohol intake,
sleeping quality, and behavior, there were no differences between the
areas. However, women scored better in the nutrition domain and alcohol
intake. The SOC was also higher in men compared to women. 
Conclusion: The results obtained demonstrate in an unprecedented way in
the literature that the correlation between the LS and SOC of college
students varies according to gender and areas of knowledge, reflecting the
importance of actions on improving students' quality of life and
enabling better academic performance.