Health Literacy and Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile Among Undergraduate Students in a Nigerian University: A Cross- Sectional Study

Introduction Health literacy is the ability to understand health information to make informed decisions. A health-promoting lifestyle includes behaviors like healthy eating, regular exercise, and stress management. Limited research on the connection between health literacy and health-promoting lifestyle leaves an important gap that this study seeks to address while extending to other associated factors. Method The sample consisted of 402 students (M _age = 21.69). Sample was analyzed using IBM-SPSS software. HLS19-Q12 was used to measure the domains of health literacy. Domains of health-promoting lifestyle were measured using the HPLP-II instrument. Descriptive statistics were employed to summarize the variables, while inferential statistics were used to explore the relationship between health literacy and health-promoting lifestyle. Result Only 57.5% (231 students) were males and 42.5% (171 students) were females. The majority of the respondents (51.0% and 2.2%) demonstrated a problematic and inadequate level of health literacy, respectively. In comparison, 28.6% and 18.2% demonstrated a sufficient and excellent level of health literacy, respectively. In terms of a health-promoting lifestyle, findings highlighted a moderate but uneven level of health-promoting behaviours among the respondents. Conclusion It can be concluded that while undergraduates at OAU possess moderate health-promoting lifestyles and low health literacy, addressing perceived barriers such as academic pressure, financial constraints, and insufficient facilities is important for translating health literacy into a healthy behaviour.