The Effect of Healthy Lifestyle Education on Health Indices (Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar) of elderly in Rafsanjan Parks

With the increase in the number of the elderly, the international community has paid special attention to improving quality of life in the elderly population. Educating healthy lifestyle behaviors can be effective in improving health indices; therefore, the present study was carried out to determine the effect of healthy lifestyle education programs on the quality of life and health indices of the elderly. This semi-experimental study was conducted on elderly people referred to four vocational gardens (parks) of the city of Rafsanjan. The data were collected using Richter sphygmomanometer, Easy-glucometer and Seca weighting devices and a demographic questionnaire. The intervention group (36 elders) received healthy lifestyle education during 8 sessions, each lasting one hour. The posttest outcomes were measured immediately and two-months after intervention the data were analyzed using version 18 of the SPSS18 by t-tests, fisher and chi-square tests. The mean of systolic blood pressure immediately (p=0.003) and two months after intervention (p=0.006) was significantly different. However, the mean of diastolic BP (p=0.003) and blood glucose (p=0.005) decreased significantly only two months after the intervention. Education can not only increase the knowledge but also improve the quality of life of elders. Therefore, it is suggested that healthy lifestyle education programs be conducted via relevant organizations for the elderly.