Mental Health Condition and Health Promoting Behaviors among Elders in Hamadan

Introduction & It is important to assess mental health in elder people in order to detect any mental health problem among them. The aim of this study was to determine the condition of mental health and health promoting behaviors among elder people in Hamadan. This was a cross-sectional study. By multistage sampling method, 400 participants over 60 years old were selected randomly. Data-gathering device was a questionnaire with 2-parts of General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) used to measure mental health condition and a check-list for measuring health promoting behaviors. Descriptive statistics (mean, variance and percentage) and One-way analysis of variance and t-test were used to compare average rate of psychical health in subjects. According to the cut off point of GHQ-28 that was 23, respondents were divided into psychiatrically deranged ones (42%, n = 168) and noncases (58%, n = 232). There was seen a statistically significant difference in mental health condition based on gender, education level, economic status, marriage status and family structure (P<0.001). Also the results showed that there was statistically significant relationship between mental health and smoking, doing exercise, drinking alcohol, eating fruit and vegetable, physical health condition and controlling blood pressure(P<0.05). Regarding the results of this study and because of the specific needs of elders, their mental health can be threated easily. Due to the relationship between mental health and health promoting behaviors, authorities are recommended to identify the psychological factors, both facilitating and prohibiting factors, associated with these behaviors.