ABSTRACT

Background: Over weight is worldwide problem that threaten both physical and psychological health of female nursing students. Healthy promotion program as regular exercise and healthy diet will provide positive outcomes.

Design: A randomized controlled trial design (pre- post and at one month follow up) used in this study.

Sample: A purposive sample of 50 female nursing students divided into 2 groups are participated in this study. (25 student for diet and exercise group and other 25 students for exercise alone group).

Setting: The study was carried out at the gymnasium of faculty of nursing -Cairo University.

Tools: three tools for data collection were used: Personal data characteristics, Body image scale & Self-esteem scale.

Results: The results showed that there was a highly significant difference among total score of diet, exercise, body image and self-esteem group (1) and total score of exercise, body image and self-esteem group (2) respectively before and after implementation the program and one month follow up. Conclusions: The study concluded that the program has effectively reduced unhealthy behaviors of sampled college students and did improve their diet and exercise regiments as well as body image and self-esteem. Recommendation: Therefore, continuous dissemination through healthy promotion programs to bring about healthy life style behavior both in physical and psychological terms is recommended for the faculty students.

Keyword: Dietary/ exercise program, body image, self-esteem, overweight