A Study of Factors Influencing Health Promoting Behavior and Quality of life in the Elderly

Park, Eun Sook; Kim, Soon Ja; Kim, So In; Chun, Young Ja; Lee, Pyoung Sook; Kim, Haeng Ja; Han, Kuem Sun

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing health promoting behavior and quality of life in the elderly, to provide the basic data for health promoting intervention in order to improve quality of life. The subjects of this study were 51 elderly person over the age of 65, living in Seoul, Korea, during the period from November, 1997 to January, 1998. The instruments for this study were the health promoting behavior scale developed by Walker et (1987), the quality of life scale by RoyouJa(1988), the health concept scale by Laffrey(1986), the perceived health states scale by Lawston et al. (1992), the health value scale by Walston et al.(1978), the self esteem scale by Rogenberg(1965) and self efficacy scale by Sherer(1982). The instruments of this using descriptive statistics, t-test, Person correlation coefficients ANOVA and stepwise multiple regression. The results of this study are as follows; 1. The health promoting behavior showed significant positive correlation with health concept perception of health status, self esteem, internal health locus of control, self efficacy and quality of life in the elderly. 2. The quality of life showed significant positive correlation with health concept, perception of health status, self esteem, internal health locus of control, self efficacy in the elderly. 3. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the most powerful predictor of health promoting behavior was quality of life. A combination of quality of life, health concept, perceived health status, self esteem, internal health locus of control, and self esteem, internal health locus, and self efficacy accounted for 46% of the variance in health promoting behavior in the elderly. 4. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the most powerful predictor of quality of life in the elderly was self esteem. A combination of self esteem. health concept, perceived health status, health promoting behavior and self efficacy account for 56% of the variance in quality of life in the elderly. From the results of the study, the following recommendations are presented as follow : 1. Development of a health promoting program to improve quality of life in the elderly. 2. In developing the health promoting, the above major influencing factors be considered. 3. It is suggested that an education specialist in practice in the community be include in the program development.