The effect of activity and spiritual health based self-care program on hypertension among the Kahrizak elderly people in the Alborz province

Aging, body breakdown and physiological function decline were resulted in massive physiological changes in tissues, organs and their function, which can affect the daily living activities and the physical independence of in elderly. One of the chronic diseases of the elderly is hypertension. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to the effect of activity and spiritual health based self-care program on hypertension among the Kahrizak elderly people in the Alborz province. The present study is a quasi-experimental research that is conducted in Karaj in 2017. The data collection was done using a barometer that is calibered. The blood pressure was controlled by researcher. Also, daily living-related questionnaire and spiritual well-being questionnaire were completed. Ninty elderly were selected through non-randomly and available sampling method from Kahrizak elderly residence center in the Alborz province. The control group used routine center programs. For the test group, the program included activity of daily living and walking three times a week for 20 minutes were designed and implemented. For the self-care program group, a spiritual program (including the prayers of the verse Ayat-Alkorsi and Salavat) was designed and implemented, in addition to the program of the test group. Then, SPSS 16 software were used for data analysis. According to the Chi-square test, the elderly did not show significant differences concerning age, sex, and disease duration (p> 0.05). Based on Kruskal-Wallis test, the mean blood pressures in three groups the control, was significantly different (p <0.05). The Mann-Whitney test revealed no significant difference between the mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures between the two groups of test and self-care group (p> 0.05). The results show that the application of activity and spiritual health based self care program is efficient on the elderly affected by hypertension. It is suggested that self-care Model with a focus on activity and spiritual health usage, to be considered for other diseases.