A Study of Factors Influencing on Health Promoting Lifestyle in the Elderly: Application of Pender's Health Promotion Model

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing health promoting lifestyle in the elderly. METHOD: The subject of this study was 305 elderly person over the age of 60, living in rural and urban, Korea. For the analysis of collected data, descriptive statistics, t-test, analysis of variance and stepwise multiple regression were used for statistical analysis with SPSS statistical program. RESULTS: The average item score for the health promoting lifestyle was 2.46. The higher score on the subscale was nutrition(2.65). The lowest score on the subscale were physical activity(2.36) and stress management(2.36). General characteristics showing statistically significant difference in health promoting lifestyle were age, residential district, live together spouse, education, religion and pocket money in the elderly. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the most powerful predictor of health promoting lifestyle in the elderly was prior related behavior(R2=.554). A combination of prior related behavior, perceived benefits of action, perceived self-efficacy, commitment to a plan of action, and interpersonal influences accounted for 64.3% of the variance in health promoting lifestyle in the elderly. CONCLUSION: The factors influencing on health promoting lifestyle for elderly were prior related behavior, perceived benefits of action, perceived self-efficacy, commitment to a plan of action, and interpersonal influences.