Health Promoting Behaviors Among Postmenopausal Women in Langroud City, Iran

Abstract

Objectives: Health promoting behaviors and healthy lifestyle are main approaches for health control. Postmenopausal women's unhealthy life style is the origin of many serious side-effects of this period. This study was carried out to determine the state of health promoting behaviors and its individual-social predictions in postmenopausal women. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 400 postmenopausal women at the age range of 45-60 years in Langroud city (Gilan province, Iran) were studied by random sampling. The data were collected by referring to their houses using demographic and Health- Promoting Lifestyle Profile-II (HPLP-II). Pearson test, ttest, one-way analysis of variance ( ANOVA) and multivariate linear regression (MVR) model were used to analyze data. Results: The mean (standard deviation) of the whole score of health promoting behaviors was 2.6 (0.3). The highest score of life style behavioral dimensions related to spiritual growth was 3.6 (0.4) and the lowest score was related to physical activity 1.6 (0.3). There was a positive significant relationship between the whole score of life style level of education, body mass index, chronic diseases and salary (P <.001) and significantly reverse relation with number of children (P <.001). Conclusion: The findings showed that health promoting behaviors in postmenopausal women were moderate. Therefore, certain policies should be designed and conducted to promote behaviors in in this group of women. Also more attention should be paid to their physical activity.