سهیلا داوری

Although aging population is a positive result of development, many negative consequences may occur if policy makers are not prepared for the related changes. Therefore, the researchers decided to determine the health status indices in Isfahan elderly for future interventions.
This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted on 4321 individuals. The subjects were selected through random stratified multistage cluster sampling. Data were collected using the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and Iranian Elderly Lifestyle and Health Status Questionnaire with approved reliability and validity. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-test in SPSS software.
Findings: In the present study, 78.5% of the subjects had a chronic disease; 62.8%, 44.1%, and 43.6% sleep disorders, hypertension, and forgetfulness, respectively. With mean scores of 143.5 and 58 in healthy lifestyle and quality of life (QOL), respectively, men had a better health status compared with women.
Chronic diseases are prevalent among the elderly. Therefore, policy makers should pay more attention to the health demands of this age group. In addition, the lifestyle and QOL scores of the elderly was higher than average; thus, more comprehensive and detailed healthy lifestyle education and health care programs can improve their QOL and health status.

Increasing the life expectancy was the major issue of public health during the 20th century, while living with better quality is the goal of 21th century. Psychological and physical situations are important factors that affect quality of life in elderly. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the quality of life among the elderly and its relationship with depression and body mass index (BMI) in Isfahan province, Iran.
A total of 637 elderly were included in this analytical observational study using a random and multistage cluster sampling method. Quality of life and depression scores were collected using Geriatric Depressions Scale (GDS) and Quality of Life Short Form-36 (SF-36) Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using t, one-way ANOVA, Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients statistical tests.
Findings: The mean score of quality of life was 54.64 ± 20.60. Quality of life and some of its dimensions had a direct relationship with lower age, being male and high level of education. We found no significant correlation between the depression score and quality of life or its dimensions. In addition, assessment of the correlation between body mass index and quality of life showed that body mass index had significant negative relationship only with physical functioning among all of the dimensions.
Results of the present study showed that lower quality of life is associated with increasing of the age, being female and low level of education. Furthermore, we found no relationship between the dimensions of quality of life and depression that might be due to the effects of several variables on quality of life among elderly.

Menopause is a normal developmental transition happening as a result of aging in all women. During menopause, women may experience certain physical, mental, social and psychological changes. Getting familiar with these changes and understanding their reasons would help women be better prepared to adapt themselves with the changes. Health education is one of the most important ways to empower women. Since the first step in any training is recognition and analysis of subject's knowledge and attitude, the purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge and attitude towards menopause among premenopausal women. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 400 healthy, non-menopausal women aged 40-45 years attending urban primary health care centers. Subjects were selected based on stratified sampling. Written informed consents were obtained from all participants. Data was collected by a three-part questionnaire including demographic characteristics, questions to assess knowledge, and attitude questions. The collected data were analyzed by Pearson correlation, independent t-test, Spearman correlation and analysis of variance (ANOVA) in SPSS. The results of this research showed the average scores of knowledge and attitude to be 63.57 ± 10.79 and 61.21 ± 12.73, respectively. In this study, 8% of the subjects had poor, 68% moderate and 38.5% good knowledge. Furthermore, 81.5% of women had positive attitude and 18.5% had negative attitudes towards menopause. Pearson correlation showed an insignificant relationship between knowledge and attitude. Spearman correlation showed knowledge and attitude to be significantly related with economic status and level of education (P < 0.001). Providing greater access to information and supporting women are essential steps in improving women's health during menopausal years.

Menopausal women are at risk of chronic diseases due to estrogen deficiency.One of the most effective ways for prevention and control of chronic diseases in menopausal women is changing their nutritional behavior. A randomized interventional study was conducted on154 menopausal women in Isfahan. In the intervention group, the training was based on HBM and certain behavior goals and continued for about two 120- minute sessions. Data were collected by a valid and reliable questionnaire. The questionnaire was completed before and after the educational program(two times- one immediately after it for assessing knowedge and HBM components, and the other, two months after it to assess nutritional behavior change) by menopausal women. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS. The result of this study showed a significant increase in the mean scores of the knowledge (pretest=8.03 ± 1.24 to post test= 9/92 ± 0.25, P<0.001) and HBM components after intervention (P<0.001)and also those of nutritional behavior before receiving education and 2 months after it (pretest=28.91 ± 5.13 to post test= 43.51 ± 2.36, P<0.001) significantly increased the in experimental group The findings of this study confirmed the effectiveness of the HBM – based educational program on improving the nutritional behavior in menopausal women.It is suggested that the HBM-based educational model used in this study be employed in medical health centers.