The Relationship between Lifestyle and General Health of Elderly People Covered by HealthCare in Babol city

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The better understanding of lifestyle and elderly health can be helpful in designing and prioritizing interventions for chronic diseases. The overall aim of this study was to determine the relationship between lifestyle and general health in elders. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 500 elders over the age of 60 who had no cognitive problems were selected from the health center in Babol city; according to the systematic cluster random sampling method. Sampling was done from April to July 2018. The research tools were the demographic questionnaire, the Iranian elderly lifestyle questionnaire and the general health questionnaire (GHQ) that were completed by interviewing. FINDINGS: The results showed that the Mean±SD age of the participants was 68.36 ± 6.5 years and 51.4% of the elderly had a favorable lifestyle and 66.4% had a desirable general health. The results showed that lifestyle and its domains had statistically significant reverse relation (p<0.001, R= -0.503) with general health and its subscales, except nutrition (p=0.06). The results of multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that income, location and lifestyle variables had a significant effect on general health. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study showed that half of the elderly who participated in this study were at a desirable lifestyle status and general health. Lifestyle, location and income were effective variables the general health of the elderly. It seems that along with educational-counseling interventions to improve lifestyle and raise the health of the elderly, the need for financial support also should be considered.