Health promotion for urban elderly: a survey of learning needs

Community based education programs and community partnerships are crucial for attaining the objectives of Healthy People 2010. The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine the health promotion needs of urban African-American elderly from the perspective of the participants in a health promotion partnership project. A convenience sample of 47 urban elderly participated in the study. A Likert scale of health promotion topics was used for data collection. Findings from the study indicated that urban elderly have a major interest in finding out more about medication, nutrition, and cardiovascular health. The elderly expressed more interest in issues related to health promotion topics and less interest in issues related to disease detection and prevention topics, including cancer and sexually transmitted diseases. The researchers concluded that some urban African-American elderly are reluctant to seek information of this nature although the reasons for this are not apparent. Program planners of health promotion activities for the elderly should be aware of the possibility of reluctance for such information among the elderly and plan ways to creatively communicate information on cancer and sexually transmitted diseases.