Association between meal regularity with general and abdominal obesity

Introduction and objective: Health literacy is an essential factor Influencing self-care of chronic conditions and maintenance of health and wellness. Lifestyle is considered as one of the most important factors affecting health that its good management can deal with many risk factors of death. Given that health literacy and lifestyle are effective factors of health of elderly, this study was aimed to examine the association between these variables among the elderly people in Qazvin, Iran in ۲۰۱۸.Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on ۲۵۰ elderly people aged ۶۰ years and older living in Qazvin city who were selected by cluster sampling from elderly gathering sites. Data were collected using the demographic, Health Literacy for Iranian Adults (HELIA), Healthy Lifestyle Measure in the Iranians Elderly questionnaires. The questionnaires were completed by face to face interview by researcher. Data were analyzed, using SPSS software version ۲۴. The level of significance was less than ۰/۵ %. Data were analyzed by Pearson correlation and Regression.Results: The mean age of participants was ۶۹/۴± ۶/۸ years old. The majority of them had insufficient or not enough health literacy. More than half of them had optimal lifestyle (n= ۱۶۰, ۶۴%). The results of multivariate regression analysis also indicated that lower age, higher education level and economic status, being retired, and living with a spouse were predictors of health literacy also age, education, hospitalization history and health literacy are predictors of life style. The Results also showed a significant and direct association between all dimensions of health literacy and lifestyle.Conclusion: However higher level of health literacy has high potential effect on lifestyle of elderly ،it is required health strategies ،proper instruction and education for promoting the health literacy and as a concequence improving the lifestyle of this age group.

کلیدواژه ها:

Aging ، Health literacy ، Lifestyle