Health behaviors and knowledge of birth control methods among students

Introduction: Thanks to preventive medicine and shaping health behaviors such as habits, customs and attitudes towards health, it is possible to control everyday life civilization threats and new outbreaks of diseases. Purpose: To assess health behaviors and level of knowledge of birth control methods among university students in Bialystok. Materials and methods: A total of 222 students of the Bialystok Polytechnic University and Medical University of Bialystok were recruited. The study used a health behavior catalogue by Juczynski and our own questionnaire. Results: The study showed a high percentage of students with poor knowledge of health behaviors. Students of both universities positively assessed their eating habits, mental attitudes, and preventive behaviors. Students of the Bialystok Polytechnic University showed significantly higher scores concerning proper health behaviors. The most common method of contraception were: condoms and contraceptive pills. Students of Medical University were characterized by significantly higher level of knowledge of birth control methods. The vast majority of respondents derived their knowledge of birth control methods from the internet. Conclusions: The results indicate that it is advisable to introduce preventive actions to the study curriculum in order to facilitate formation of proper habits and health behaviors. The level of knowledge among students of the methods of natural birth control is insufficient. It is important to search for various forms and methods to provide young people with objective information according to the latest research.