Survey health behavior of elderly referring to retirement centers in Rasht city in 2008

Getting old healthy is every human’s right and this emphasizes the importance of elderly phenomena and prevention of problems. Health behaviors play important role in prevention of problems. The aim of this study is to determine health behaviors in elderlies referring to active retirement centers in Rasht city in 2008. This was a correlational descriptive study in which 320 members from active retirement centers in Rasht city participated in this study. Data was collected by a two part questionnaire that included demographic and health behaviors in four domains of physical activity, nutrition, interpersonal relationships and stress management which were gathered by interview. The data was analyzed by descriptive statistics and chi-square test by SPSS version 15. Findings showed that mean score for the health behaviors were 92.5 ±13.6 and members obtained 55.6 percent of health behaviors score. The mean scores for sub scales were, nutrition: 23.1±4.4, physical activity: 14.95±4.3, interpersonal relationships: 29.5±4.7 and stress management: 24.8±4.2. There were statistically significant relation between health behaviors and general characteristics such as education level (p=0.01), family composition (p=0.008), monthly income (p=0.000), marital status (p=0.03) and occupational group (p=0.000). According to the study findings, it is concluded that different factors could correlate with health behaviors in elderly people. Therefore, planning for health behaviors based on the correlated factors, social contribution, improving medical and health services and counseling services in elderly population is important to be considered.