Life Style of Elderly in Kashmar, Iran 2012

Because of high growth of elderly population and the role of life style in their problems, we aimed to investigate the elders’life style in Kashmar. This descriptive study was conducted on 267 of over- 60- older people, who were covered by Kashmar health centers, selected by multi-stage sampling. We collected the data, using a valid and reliable questionnaire, via interview and analyzed them by SPSS 18 version using Chi- Square, ANOVA, independent t test, and correlation coefficient. The Mean age of the elderly was 69.03±0.38. The life style was moderate in 180 (67.4%) and desirable in 87 (32.6%) of them. There was significant relationship between life style and the variables such as age, marital status and education level (P<0.001). In addition, There was significant negative relationship between age and preventive behavior (p<0.001 r=-0.453), physical activity (p<0.001 r=-0.226), tension (p<0.001 r= -0.252) and social relation (p<0.001 r=-0.311). A high percentage of elderly hasnt desirable life style; therefore, we recommended appropriate measures, especially educational intervention for promoting elders’ life style.