Education based on precede-proceed on quality of life in elderly.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: One of the most important challenges in public health is to improve the quality of life in elders. Aging may cause various disorders such as disabilities, high risk conditions and some chronic disease. In this study the effect of educational intervention based on precede-proceed on quality of life in elders was examined.

MATERIALS & METHODS: This semi experimental study was carried out on 128 elders over 60 years in Zahedan that were randomly selected by multi-stage sampling method and divided in to control and intervention groups. Data collection tool was a triploid questionnaire that included demographic data, questions of precede-proceed constructs and SF-36 questionnaire. The validity and reliability of questionnaire confirmed by experts and Cranach's Alpha coefficient (76%). After primary data collecting, educational intervention was performed and after nine months data was collected again and analyzed in spss.16 soft-ware using descriptive and analytical statistics.

RESULTS

The results showed that mean score of quality of life in participants was low and more than 61% of them had a mean score less than 50%. After intervention the mean score of quality of life only in experimental group significantly increased from 47.72 to 58.90. Behavior and self-rated health were the strongest predictors for quality of life in this study.

CONCLUSION

Implementation educational intervention based on precedes-proceed model can improve quality of life in elders. Elderly women and older elderly individuals compared with elderly men and younger elderly should be considering as an important risk factor for reducing HRQOL.