Factors Influencing Health Promoting Behavior in the Elderly People : Perceived Conception of Health and Family Support

노인의 건강증진행위에 영향을 미치는 요인 : 건강개념과 가족지지 변수를 중심으로

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe perceived conception of health, family support and health Promoting behavior; as well as to assess factors that influence health promoting behavior. Method: Study participants were 165 elderly people over the age of 65, living in C city. The instruments were Laffery's health concept scale, the family support scale by Kang, and the health promoting behavior scale by Walker et al. Results : 1. The scores for level of health concept ranged from 28 to 112, and had a mean score of 75.16. The scores for level of family support ranged from 11 to 55, and had a mean score of 41.55. The scores for health promoting behavior ranged from 40 to 160 with mean score of 98.07. For health promoting behavior the participants revealed that the most frequent practices were in nutrition, and the least frequent, in exercise. 2 Higher levels of health conception and family support were correlated with an improving level of health promoting behavior. 3. The factor most influencing health promoting behavior in elderly people was family support. Family support accounted for 11% of the variance in health promoting behavior. A combination of health conception, education level and dwelling pattern accounted for 23% of the variance in health promoting behavior. Conclusion : Perceived health conception and family support were identified as important variables for health promoting behavior in elderly people.