The Effect of Self-management education on Promoting Mental Health Behaviors in Older Women of West Tehran

Self-management program, which is one of the methods of rehabilitation, emphasizes all care activities and the client has a central role. Its goal is to achieve maximum independence, self-decision and health improvement based on the person's abilities and lifestyle and the improvement of quality of life. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of self-management education on mental health promotion in old age women.

This research is a quasi-experimental, pre-test and post-test study with control and randomized control group. In this study, 76 elderly women referred to neighborhoods west of Tehran. They were randomly divided into intervention and control groups. The instrument of the study was demographic questionnaire and short-lived health behaviors scale (SRAHPS). It was studied in three periods of time (before intervention, one month and three months after the intervention). SPSS software version 16 was used for data analysis of demographic characteristics and purpose of the study. For data analysis of the demographic characteristics and the objective of the study were t-test, Chi-square and Fisher's exact test.

The results of the research on the demographic characteristics of the studied groups showed that there were no significant differences between the two groups (intervention and control) in terms of individual characteristics, before the intervention, there was no significant difference between the two groups. There was no significant difference in the mental health of the two groups before the intervention (P-value = 0.81). In other words, the two groups were homogeneous before the intervention, but one month and three months after the intervention for health mental was significant (P-value = 0.001).

According to the findings of the study, self-management program has been effective in promoting mental health behaviors in elderly women and the main goal is confirmed, therefore, it is suggested that nursing education to elders should be considered by nurses in health care centers.