Perception of Healthy Lifestyle Among Iranian Elders: A Qualitative Research

Objectives: Healthy lifestyle, as a social determinant of health, is an important source of health promotion, especially in older adults. Given the association of lifestyle to social context, interpreting and recognition of the healthy lifestyle concept may greatly impact on making more appropriate the health promotion interventions. This study aimed to describe the healthy lifestyle as older adults perceive it. Methods & Materials: A qualitative content analysis approach was used in this study. A purposeful sample of 16 community dwelling older adults aged 60 years or older were interviewed. Peer check, member check, and prolonged engagement were considered for building trustworthiness. Results: The healthy lifestyle is composed of 2 main personal and social health related behavioral categories and 12 subcategories of doing healthy habits, having social roles, maintaining inter-personal relationships, having good quality sleep, stress control, prevention of health deterioration, doing daily living activities, observance on healthy food , passing good leisure time, having purpose in life, and being mentally active. Conclusion: Behaviors related to healthy lifestyle in Iranian older adults are influenced by Islamic-Iranian culture and can be divided in 2 major groups: Personal and social

Relationship Between Lifestyle and General Health Among Elderly People in Tehran

Objectives: In future decade, the number of elder people is projected to increase and health promotion&nbsp;of this age group will be insufficient in the coming years. Recent geriatric research show, the elder mortality&nbsp;rate will increase with advancing age and inversely related to their life style status. In this descriptive&nbsp;study, we examined the relationship between elder life style and their general health status. Methods & Materials: We studied four hundred elder participants in five region of Tehran capital city with&nbsp;applying randomized multistage sampling of these geographical clusters in a cross-sectional research&nbsp;design. In this study, data was gathered by life style and general health questionnaires. The Life style&nbsp;questionnaire includes physical activity, nutrition, interpersonal, social, stress prevention and management&nbsp;subscales and general health was measured with 28 item General Health (GHQ) questionnaire. Results: According to the finding of this study, majority (95%) of Tehran elder population had a moderate&nbsp;lifestyle ranking and the results of multiple regression analysis show that there was a significant relationship&nbsp;between lifestyle dimensions and general health subscales. In this regard, we enface with a inverse&nbsp;significant relationship (P<0.01) between lifestyle and general health scores (r=-0.4). Conclusion: Moderate lifestyle ranking of elder in the region of study and especial demands of this growing&nbsp;population needs to further investigated and applying various strategies for promoting lifestyle&nbsp;changes, health and better elder quality of life

The lived experiences of resilience in Iranian adolescents living in residential care facilities: A hermeneutic phenomenological study

Background: Resilience is one of the main factors affecting human health, and perceiving its meaning for high-risk adolescents is of particular importance in initiating preventive measures and providing resilience care. Objectives: This qualitative study was conducted to explain the meaning of resilience in the lived experiences of Iranian adolescents living in governmental residential care facilities. Materials and methods: This study was conducted using the hermeneutic phenomenological method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight adolescents aged 13–17 living in governmental residential care facilities of Tehran province affiliated to the Welfare Organization of Iran who articulated their experiences of resilience. Sampling lasted from May 2014 to July 2015 and continued until new themes were no longer emerging. The researchers analyzed the verbatim transcripts using Van Manen's six-step method of phenomenology. Results: The themes obtained in this study included “going through life's hardships,” “aspiring for achievement,” “self-protection,” “self-reliance,” and “spirituality.” Conclusion: Our study indicates that the meaning of resilience coexists with self-reliance in adolescents’ lived experiences. Adolescents look forward to a better future. They always trust God in the face of difficulties and experience resilience by keeping themselves physically and mentally away from difficulties. Adverse and bitter experiences of the past positively affected their positive view on life and its difficulties and also their resilience. The five themes that emerged from the findings describe the results in detail. The findings of this study enable nurses, health administrators, and healthcare providers working with adolescents to help this vulnerable group cope better with their stressful life conditions and improve their health through increasing their capacity for resilience

Elderly, Duration of Hospitalization and Hospital Cost in Milad Hospital in Iran

Objectives: There are much more studies about adolescence in most countries in compare with other age groups. The goal of this study is evaluation of relationship between duration of hospitalization in elderly patients in comparison to the middle ages. Methods & Materials: This is a descriptive analysis, cross sectional, case study and retrospective research that was done after gathering the data of elderly and middle age patient in MILAD Hospital. First of all prevalent causes of admission in hospital has been detected. Descriptive analysis about tow important factors include: Duration of hospitalization and bed cost has been done. By statistical tests (T.Test, Analysis Of Variance-ANOVA- and other analytical test) the results had been analyzed and compared with similar researches. Results: In this study data of 12.989 patient has been analyzed (7,279 adolescent people with age range of 60&plusmn;8.73 and 5,710 middle age people with age range of 45&plusmn;4.17 which 6,430 were female and 6,559 were male). Based on this study the duration of hospitalization and bed costs of adolescents has been significantly more than middle age patients (P<0.001). As well, the bed costs of people between 60-75 years old has been significantly much more than other adolescents (P<0.001). Analysis showed that bed costs and duration of hospitalization has been significantly more in men than women (P<0.001). Conclusion: 1) Elderliness increases the duration of hospitalization, 2) The longest duration of hospitalization has been for 60-75 years old patients, 3) Duration of hospitalization was longer for men than women

Effect of Mindfulness Program on Caregivers’ Strain on Alzheimer’s Disease Caregivers

Objectives The aim of the study was to determine the effect of mindfulness program on the caregivers&rsquo; strain on elderly patients with Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease who were referred to the Iran Alzheimer&rsquo;s Association 2012.&nbsp; Methods & Materials This study was a quasi-experimental study with two groups and before and after design. The participants (n=60) were selected by convenience sampling method and then randomly allocated to intervention (n=30) and control (n=30) groups. The intervention group was trained with a mindfulness program for 6 weeks in two sessions (2 hours in each session per week). Data were collected through the caregiver&rsquo;s strain questionnaires before and one week after the intervention. Results The mean of caregivers&rsquo; strain in the intervention group decreased from 36.96&plusmn;6.72 to 30.63&plusmn;6.37 (P0.05). Conclusion The results showed that the mindfulness program could reduce the caregivers&rsquo; strain on Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease, and these findings can be applicable for all caregivers

The Prevalence of Depression in Older Turkmen Adults in 1389

Objectives: The elderly population in the world is growing and, by 2050, it is expected to exceed 20% of the world's population size, with the majority living in developing countries. Psychological disorders are among the most important problems in elderly people. There are some barriers in the elderly with specific race and ethnicity that can lead to difficulty in detection and interpretation of psychological and mood disorders, for instance language and lower education levels. In this survey, the prevalence of depression in elderly Turkmen over 60 years of age was measured based on standard tests. Methods & Materials: This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 300 community- dwelling Turkmen over 60 years of age without cognitive impairment. Individuals were randomly selected using cluster sampling. In this research, questionnaires containing demographic information and standardized questionnaires of depression in the elderly (GDS15) were used and completed during interviews. Results: Data analyses showed that the mean depression score was 4.31&plusmn;3.353, with 20 percent of participants experiencing mild depression, 10 percent moderate depression, 3 percent severe depression, and 67 percent remaining asymptomatic. The mean age for men and women was 69&plusmn;7.06 and 67&plusmn;6.48, respectively. Conclusion: Depression is a significant problem in public health. The prevalence of moderate and severe depression among older Turkmen adults is lower or similar to rates found in other research in Iran. Given the prevalence of mild depression, correct planning for early diagnosis and treatment is necessary. Determining depression-influencing factors is recommended

Analysis of the Psychometric Properties of the Perceived Social Support Scales in Older Adults

Objectives: An important part of health status assessment of older adults is measurement of their perceived&nbsp;social support. Choosing a sound scale with good psychometrics properties is a prerequisite for&nbsp;proper assessment. The aim of this review article was to analyze the psychometric properties of perceived&nbsp;social support scales to help researchers become more familiar with positive and negative aspects&nbsp;of these instruments and select a more valid and appropriate one. Methods & Materials: A comprehensive search of databases of Medline, Google scholar, and Scopus was&nbsp;conducted, using the keywords related to design and process of psychometrics scales of perceived social&nbsp;support. In this regard, the articles published from 1970 until 2014 were collected. Then, the psychometric&nbsp;properties of the selected scales, including validity, reliability, responsiveness, and interpretability&nbsp;were assessed using the COSMIN comprehensive checklist. Results: Most of the scales had not reported a complete and desirable psychometrics properties. Some&nbsp;of them, despite of being developed for adult populations, lacked the capability for using in older adults&nbsp;(length of scale, length of questions, special questions). Conclusion: The results revealed that despite the lack of an appropriate scale for measurement of old&nbsp;adults perceived social support, the MOS is the only scale which can be recommended to gerontologists&nbsp;until now. However, a vital need is felt for developing an instrument based on cultural and social characteristics&nbsp;of different societies with acceptable psychometrics properties for measuring perceived social&nbsp;support in older adults

A comprehensive health plan: The lifestyle affecting factors in iranian youth

Background: Factors affecting lifestyle become one of the most priorities of the research field, especially in adolescents and youth. Using a qualitative approach, this study aimed to understand what factors are affecting young people's healthy lifestyle. Methods: Using the conventional content analysis, and used the semi-structured in-depth interviews, we conducted a qualitative study to elicit the youth opinion considering their lifestyle affecting factors. Initially, purposeful sampling method was considered for data collection. Participants were selected from volunteered youths 18–30 years whom were selected from the Tehran city. Inclusion criteria for the participants were; (a) willingness to participate in the study, and (b) ability to express experiences. Results: According to findings, although the majority of participants agreed on the important role of lifestyle related behaviors in their healthy life, the lack of essential motivation and the pressure of educational assignments remove it from their daily program priorities. The most important barrier to observing the healthy lifestyle was expressed as; the acceptance of the concept by the individual and the social and economic potential of the individual. It was also suggested that practical interventions should focus on improving more participator engagement of all of the related stakeholders. Conclusions: We proposed the participatory strategies for youth healthy lifestyle promotion. Through which based on a specific needs the assessment of different target groups, designing, development, and implementation of health programs led to more effective interventions