Health-Promoting Lifestyle of Adolescents with β-Thalassemia Based on Precede Model in Ahvaz, Iran, 2016

Abstract

Background: Lifestyle as a health promotion component contains six dimensions of stress management, health-responsibility, interpersonal relationships, spiritual growth, nutrition and physical activity. The current study aimed to determine the health-promoting lifestyle of adolescents with β-thalassemia, based on Precede model to analyze behavior. Methods: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in February 2016 on 64 adolescents with β-thalassemia and the age range of 16 - 20 years selected by census sampling method. Data were collected by two self-reporting questionnaires; health-promoting lifestyle profile (HPLP) II and a researcher-made questionnaire based on Precede model. Data were analyzed using SPSS ver. 22 by applying descriptive statistics of absolute and relative frequency distribution, central tendency, mean and standard deviation, and analytical statistics of spearman correlation and Mann-Whitney U test. Results: The mean age of participants was 17.98 ± 1.36 years and the mean overall score of lifestyle of adolescents under study was 106.23 ± 8.54. Based on the findings of the current study, the overall lifestyle of adolescents with β-thalassemia was correlated with their knowledge and attitude. In addition, the standardized mean score of knowledge was greater in females than males (P value = 0.05). Conclusions: Overall health-promoting lifestyle of the studied adolescents with β-thalassemia was unsatisfactory. Due to the impact of adopted lifestyle on the current and future health of adolescents, it is important that the necessary measures are taken to encourage more young people with β-thalassemia to adopt a healthy lifestyle.