Potential categories of lifestyle behavior and its relation with traditional Chinese medicine constitutions among higher vocational medical students / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To understand potential categories of lifestyle behaviors and its association with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) constitution among higher vocational medical students, so as to provide reference for the physical health management of them.@*Methods@#From October to December 2022, 2 720 medical students from three higher vocational medical colleges in Anhui Province were selected by stratified cluster sampling method and were investigated with a questionnaire of lifestyle and TCM body constitution. Potential category analysis (LCA) and multiple linear regression were used to explore the relationship between potential categories of lifestyle behaviors and TCM constitutions.@*Results@#The lifestyle behavior of vocational medical students were classified into three potential categoriesgeneral health group (83.60%), smoking and drinking group (4.85%) and diet preference group (11.55%). There were significant differences in the distribution of TCM constitution types among the three groups ( χ 2=46.32, P < 0.01 ). The proportion of general health group was the higher in balanced constitution (46.39%), and the proportion of smoking and drinking type was higher in phlegm dampness (25.00%). The dietary preferences were higher in phlegm dampness (20.38%), Yin deficiency (15.92%) and damp heat (20.70%). Taking balanced constitution as a reference, the occurrence risk of phlegm and dampness in smoking and drinking type and diet preference type was 1.75 times higher (95% CI =1.09-2.77) and 1.78 times higher (95% CI = 1.26-2.49) than that in general health group ( P <0.05).@*Conclusion@#There are certain aggregation characteristics in lifestyle behaviors among higher vocational medical students, which show significant relations with TCM constitutions. Targeted intervention should be carried out according to the demographic characteristics of higher vocational medical students, potential categories of behavior and lifestyle characteristics and TCM constitutions.