Background: Personal health behaviours and lifestyle habits of health professionals influence their counselling practices related to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). There are limited data on the prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle habits among medical students and the impact of acquired health knowledge throughout the curriculum. The aim of this study was to determine and compare the prevalence of modifiable behavioural NCD risk factors of medical students in different academic years at a South African tertiary in…

Background. The personal health behaviours and lifestyle habits of health professionals influence their counselling practices related to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). There is limited evidence on the prevalence of modifiable NCD risk factors among medical students in South Africa (SA). Objectives. To determine the prevalence of modifiable behavioural and metabolic NCD risk factors in first-year medical students at a SA university. Methods. This cross-sectional observational study included 256 first-year studen…

The personal health behaviours, including physical activity, of healthcare professionals influence their counselling practices as they relate to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). However, despite the importance of producing healthy, physically active graduates, there are limited data on the physical fitness of future healthcare professionals. This cross-sectional observational study determined the prevalence of below-average fitness in the four components of fitness in first-year university medical students. 152 p…