| Summary: | 碩士 === 高雄醫學大學 === 護理研究所 === 82 === The purposes of this study were 1) to examine the preventive health behaviors of rural elderly women; 2) to examine the related factors which influence the rural elderly women in adoption of preventive health behaviors; and 3) to provide the results of this study to community health nurses for application. A purposed and convenient sample of women over 65 years of age was selected from six villages in Kaoshu Hsiang, Pingtong County. The interview data were obtained by this researcher and three trained interviewers through home visits. The result had 273 subjects which belonged to the Ho-Lo and Ke-Chiaethic groups been collected.
The contents of this instrument included demographic information, biological factors, cognitive factors, cues to action and preventive health behaviors. Expert validity and internal conisitency reliability (Cronbach''s alpha: 0.6457-0.9754) were obtained for the instrument. Then the collected data were analyzed by the computer, using SPSS 5.0 for windows.
The study results found that: 1) most of the rural elderly women had more than one chronic syndrome, but they could care of themselves. Furthermore, the data showed that difficulty chewing was their chief health problem and rheumatic arthritis was next. The self-rated-health scores were in average degree. 2) The score index of nine items of preventive health behaviors, from high to low in order, were to avoid health risk factors, to have healthy diet habits, to have regular blood pressure check-ups, to have regular exercise habits, to have regular chest X-rays, to have regular blood sugar testing, to have regular health examinations, to have regular PAP smears and to have regular breast examinations. Only the first three items score index were over 60. 3) According to the conceptual framework, barriers of action, eductional level, benefits of action, age, self-reported chronic disease numbers and ethic groups could predict overall preventive health behavior effectively, which accounted Four suggestions for community health nursing practices, future studies and the education of community health nursing as follow: 1) health education for elderly women should focus on providing adequate knowledge of preventive health care and the importance of early health detection; 2) accessibility and avalibility of health service to reduce the barriers of action for these elderly women should be increased; 3) further studies should compare the differences of preventive health behaviors between urban and rural elderly women; and 4) the results of this study may provide a reference for the education of community health nursing.
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