Abstract:

This study was conducted to determine the health tourism awareness levels of students studying in the field of health. The universe of the research consists of 2344 students studying at the Faculties of Medicine, Health and Dentistry at Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University in Turkey. Since the number of scope was known in the study, a sampling calculation was made and 365 people were included in the sample and the sample was taken using the stratified sampling method as well. The data of the study was collected using the personal data form and the Health Tourism Awareness Scale.

Statistical evaluation of the data was done in computer environment by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS 26.0) and AMOS 24.0 package programs. 62.5% of the students participating in the research are female, 37.5% are male, the rate of those studying at the Faculty of Health Sciences is 43.7%. 39.5% of those participants are studying at the Faculty of Medicine, and 16.8% is at the Faculty of Dentistry. It was determined that the reliability of the health tourism awareness scale is very high (Cronbach's Alpha=0.825). In this study, the health tourism awareness of the participants was determined as moderate ( = 2,94). When the awareness levels in the other sub-dimensions are examined, it is observed that the highest level in the Effects of Health Tourism sub-dimension is ( = 3,19), and it is respectively followed by such sub-dimensions as the Image ( = 3,13), Institutional Competence ( = 2,94) and Awareness ( = 2,73). In general, both the participants' awareness of health tourism and all of the other sub-dimensions were determined as moderate. As a result of the analyses made within the framework of various variables, it was concluded that the health tourism awareness levels of the participants did not change according to the gender and age variables, but the awareness levels were affected according to the faculty, class and income.

Keywords: