A comparison of two models of health-promoting lifestyle in rural elderly Taiwanese women

The purposes of this study were to: (1) examine the relations among age, ma rital status, social class, perceived health, self-care agency. health-prom oting lifestyle, and well-being in two groups of rural elderly Taiwanese wo men and (2) validate and compare two models using the two age groups of rur al elderly Taiwanese women. Based on the conceptualizations of the major st udy variables in Orem's self-care model (1995), Fender's health promotion m odel (1987), and other scholars' ideas (Hartweg, 1990; Simmons, 1990), a th eoretical model of health-promoting lifestyle was proposed for this study. A survey-interview method was used for data collection. Two groups of elder ly women were recruited for data analysis: 168 in the younger group and 116 in the older group. The mean age was 64.66 in the younger group and 75.59 in the older group. Two models of health-promoting Lifestyle were tested wi th a path analysis, using the Linear Structural Relations 8 (LISREL 8) prog ram. The resultant models yielded chi (2) of 13.69 with 9 degrees of freedo m (p = 0.13) in the younger group and chi (2) of 15.76 with 10 degrees of f reedom (p = 0.11) in the older group. Other fit indices also indicate the t wo models fit the data well. Community nurses can assess, identify, and use effective interventions for rural elderly women on a basis of the resultin g models.