Health behaviours of the students of Taiwan origin studying in Poland

Introduction. Cultural diversity become to be more and more common phenomenon at Poland. Because of the migration of the society, nurses more often need to care about patients from other cultures, as from Taiwan. People from Taiwan care about health in a different way than Poles. Understanding of different point of view on provided care (which is influenced by the culture) and health behaviors is very useful skill for nurses.

Aim. The goal of that work is better understanding of health behaviors in group of young people from Taiwan.

Material and methods. The study was conducted with the use of a diagnostic questionnaire and such research tools as: a questionnaire concerning health behaviour designed by the authors and the Self-Efficacy Scale (Schwarzer, Jerusalem). The study was made on group of 60 people from Taiwan. 40 of them are students of Silesia Medical Academy at Katowice and rest of them are studying at Taiwan.

Results. Study shown that 39% of male Taiwanese, which study at Poland have overweight and 12% of female Taiwanese have underweight. Most frequently consumed products were fruits and vegetables. Males drink approximately 1 liter of alcohol per month and females half less. 11% of females and 21% of males smoke cigarettes. Most of female Taiwanese don’t use contraception. Males use protection more often but also admits to casual sex. Most of them prefer to spend free time in both, active and passive way. Half of the respondents had a high level of self-efficacy. Subjects with low self-efficacy show a more frequent risk behaviors as smoking cigarettes and "casual sex".

Conclusions. Taiwanese adhere to Polish principles of healthy life-style. Males demonstrates bad life-style behaviors more often than females. Change in alteration of health behaviors because of change of environment was not observed.