Approaches to Cultivating Healthy Behaviours in Tertiary Students: Systemic Review

Abstract

Abstract: The purpose of the study was to identify the interventions used as approaches to cultivate healthy behaviours in undergraduate students and assess the effectiveness of those approaches. This was qualitative research. The design of the study was organised into three stages such as the search and selection stage, validation and assessment stage, and the interpretation stage. The originally designed Critical Appraisal Checklist was used by the research team members. The Triangular Assessment Method was used by the involved experts in pedagogics in the field of health education, psychology in the field of healthcare and health promotion, and experts in public health policy and healthy lifestyle management. The review provided a list of feasible approaches that can be combined to make the models that might increase the effectiveness of the process of cultivating healthy behaviours in tertiary students. These approaches were found to be the cross-domain solution seen as flexible. The specified approaches are easily combined with other ones. The use of these approaches in combination with the other approaches creates the models that can increase the effectiveness of the process of cultivating healthy behaviours in the students. The findings imply that healthy behaviour is a complex phenomenon that requires a consistent, multi-facet, and prolonged influence. Keywords: Higher education; healthy behaviours; pedagogics; psychology; public health policy, and healthy lifestyle management.