Exploring the effective factors on young adult compliance of healthy lifestyle: A qualitative study

Studies have shown weak and moderate scores on the various aspects of Iranian young adult’s lifestyle. Because, quantitative studies just focused on investigation of the correlation between determined factors and lifestyle and they have not assessed the causes of this problem in socio-cultural background of Iran, this study was done with the purpose of exploring the young adult’s lived experiences about effective factors on compliant of a healthy lifestyle by using a qualitative method.
Material & This study was done according to qualitative content analysis approach with purposive sampling of 18-24 years old young adults who live in Isfahan city. Data gathering method was semi structured interviews that continued until data saturation. Analysis was done according to the conventional content analysis method.
In total, 24 young adult (12 female, 12 male) were enrolled. Their mean age was 21.5 years old. Three main categories of individual (with four subcategories), family (with two subcategories) and socioeconomic factors (with three subcategories) were emerged from data analysis. Each category had several subcategories.
Although, lifestyle modification requires a holistic and long-term planning, according to the participant's emphasis on effectiveness of individual’s factors, it seems that sectional and short-term interventions aimed at personal growth, identity making, and knowledge and attitude development, should be considered for the young adults without any long-term planning.