The Effect of Education Program on Health Promotion Behavior on Successful Aging

Abstract

Background: A successful aging pattern indicates a change in attitudes toward aging and life quality improvement, which include the components of general health and life satisfaction. The current study aimed to evaluate the effects of an educational program on successful aging components in the elders. Materials and Methods: A three-stage empirical study was conducted on 72 individuals of 60-75 years old who were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. A 9-session educational program presenting health-related behaviors, including stress management and interpersonal relationships, was held for the experimental group. Two sessions of neutral topics group discussion were held for the control group. A Demographic Information Questionnaire, General Health Questionare-28 (GHQ-28), Diener's Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) were used and completed before, immediately after, and two months after the intervention. Independent t-test was used for analysis of obtained data via SPSS software. Results: The mean (SD) score of general health in the two groups had no significant differences before the intervention 32.40 (14.70) vs. 30.8 (10.04) (p = 0.60). The mean (SD) scores of general health immediately after intervention and two months later in the experimental group 20.2 (8.8) and 24.1 (8.05) were significantly lower than control group 31 (9.8) and 30.9 (9.8) (p < 0.05). The mean (SD) scores of life satisfaction in the both groups showed no significant difference before the intervention 16.8 (5.8) vs. 17.3 (5.5) (p = 0.39), but were significantly different immediately after 20.4 (5.1) vs. 17.03 (5.1) and two months after 19.8 (5.1) vs. 17.1 (5.1) (p = 0.004). Conclusions: This study confirmed the effectiveness of health-related educational programs in improving elders 'general health and life satisfaction'.