Older adults and healthy lifestyle issues: results of a community study

To discover sources of information about, levels of understanding of, and degrees of commitment to a healthy lifestyle on the part of elderly people in the community as a preliminary to mounting health promotion and education initiatives.

In 1992 500 people aged 60 and over were surveyed anonymously using a 33 item questionnaire. This sought information on a wide range of health and lifestyle issues in older age. The material in this paper refers to only four of the questions asked, namely those relating to sources of, knowledge of, and interest in information on health and ageing.

Doctors were perceived to be the most important sources of health information (89% of respondents rating them as "very" or "moderately" important). Relatives/friends and books/magazines were the next most important sources (56 and 55% respectively). High levels of misinformation about lifestyle issues were revealed. Whilst 85+% of respondents answered correctly that smoking was deleterious and strong social ties advantageous to good health in old age there was confusion about causes of osteoporosis, use of vitamins, likelihood of developing dementia and even the importance of exercise. This has implications for the content of health promotion programmes. Contrary to previously published research, we found no correlation between educational or socioeconomic status or gender, and knowledge about health issues and healthy lifestyles.

Studies of this type clearly have the ability to provide a range of information which ought to be available to those responsible for the planning of health promotion and education initiatives for older adults.