The effect of a healthy lifestyle program on the elderly's health in Arak.

BACKGROUND: Increasing life-expectancy and decreasing birth rate have led to an increase in the elderly population worldwide so that the aging population is considered one of the biggest public health concerns in the present century which demands more attention to this vulnerable group. Therefore, the present study was done to determine the effect of a healthy lifestyle program on elderly's health in Arak.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This quasi-experimental intervention study was carried out on 60 elderly citizens of Arak. The participants attended four instructional classes on nutrition, exercise, sleep hygiene, life skills, and personal hygiene over one month and they were followed for three months after the intervention. Data were collected through standard quality of life questionnaire (SF-36) and Katz standard ADLs in the elderly questionnaire before and three months after the completion of the study.

RESULTS: The average age of the participants was 67.61 ± 5.02 years. In terms of gender, the majority of the participants (60%) were male. In terms of quality of life before the instructional intervention, 13.3% of the participants were in low level, 30% in average level, 41.7% in good level, and 15% in the high level of quality of life. However, after the intervention, the majority of the participants were in good (38.3%) and high (45%) levels of quality of life which showed significant differences before and after the instructional intervention (P < 0.001). Moreover, there was a significant difference between Katz ADLs in the elderly before and after the intervention (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION: The comparison between the quality of life and ADLs in the elderly before and after the intervention showed that continuing instruction for the elderly based on a regular healthy lifestyle program is effective and holding different instructional classes for this population, that is often ignored, seems necessary. The findings of this study can help design proper instructional guidelines on healthy lifestyle in the elderly.