ABSTRACT Introduction: Healthy lifestyles prevent diseases and optimize the health of the human being, even better among university students, who are vulnerable to changing attitudes, routines, habits, and their lifestyle. Objective: To determine the effectiveness of a program based on the Nola Pender model to promote healthy lifestyles in Peruvian university students. Methods: Pre-experimental study with pre-test and post-test, in a private university in Tarapoto, Peru, during 2017. 869 students from seven majors participated. To know the lifestyle of university students, the Pender PESPS-I was used. The intervention lasted eight months. Nutritional aspects, emotional health and physical activity were considered. In the statistical analysis, the non-parametric Wilcoxon test was performed, with a significance level of p=0.05, in addition to the distribution of absolute frequencies, perce...