Objective:

Promotion of health allows to put into practice theoretical foundations that can improve health behaviors of the population, for which it is necessary to develop a health promoting lifestyle. A positive approach to generate health in young adults is to promote the salutogenic approach to health by encouraging the use of resources the person has and developing a sense of coherence. The main objective of this paper is to identify a health promoting lifestyle and its relationship with the sense of coherence in young adult university students in Sonora, Mexico.

Materials and methods:

descriptive, correlational study with 300 undergraduate students. Prior informed consent, a sociodemographic data card, the Life Style Questionnaire II and the Sense of Coherence-13 Scale were applied.

Results:

young adults showed enough general health promoting lifestyle (51.0%), with a higher incidence in women (52.1%). Health sciences students (55.2%) obtained an insufficient health promoting lifestyle and there was statistically significant difference by career. The general sense of coherence was high (52.0%), being predominant in men (58.0%) and in health sciences students (57.2%); there was no statistically significant difference according to gender and careers. It was evidenced that a sufficient health promoting lifestyle fosters the development of a high sense of coherence.

Conclusions:

it is essential to establish programs for the development of life skills to ensure better health and well-being of future generations of young adults by promoting the development of a sense of coherence.

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