2. Methods
Design and sample: the target population for the study is university students in Jordan. A cross-sectional descriptive design was used to examine health promoting behaviors of university students. Using G power soft
program utilizing Z test indicating descriptive study using α = 0.05 two tail level of significance, effect size =
0.2 (low medium), power = 0.8 at least 369 students are needed for this study. A convenience sample of 525
students participated in the study. Participants were included if they were Jordanian university students, agreed
to participate, and not disabled or has acute medical conditions that affect their participation in health-promoting
activities.
Procedure: participants were recruited from two governmental universities and one private university in Jordan. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires between September 2013 and January 2014.
Data collectors visited humanities, scientific and health faculties and entered different classes after arranging
with faculty administrators. In each class, data collectors explained study purpose to students and distributed the
questionnaires to students who agree to participate. The questionnaire was distributed to the university students
in the class at the beginning of the lecture. Students filled the questionnaire and returned it to the research assistants in the same lecture in a sealed envelope. The researcher provided the research assistants with identical instructions and brief description about the study to explain it to the students before distributing the questionnaire.
Prior to data collection, ethical approval was obtained from the Research Committee at the researcher faculty
and the Research Ethical Committee at the Deanship of Academic Research at the University where the researcher work. A written informed consent was obtained from each student prior to data collection.