Middle-Aged Women’s Quality of Life and Health-Promoting Lifestyle

Abstract

Background: Middle age is among the most important periods in women’s lives that is associated with different changes. Health-promoting lifestyle significantly affects health and quality of life. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate middle-aged women’s quality of life and health-promoting lifestyle. Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted in 2016 on 290 middle-aged women who aged 35 - 59 years and lived in Birjand, Iran. Study sample was recruited through multi-stage cluster random sampling. The 52-item health-promoting lifestyle profile and the 36-item quality of life questionnaire were used for data gathering. The measures of descriptive statistics (such as mean and standard deviation) were employed for data description and presentation while Pearson correlation analysis, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Tukey’s post hoc, and independent-sample t tests were used to analyze the data at a significance level of less than 0.05. Results: The mean values of women’s age, quality of life score, and health-promoting lifestyle score were 41.06 ± 7.60, 56.47 ± 14.28, and 124.42 ± 19.18, respectively. Women’s quality of life was significantly correlated with their age so that women who aged 30 - 39 and 50 - 59 acquired the highest and the lowest quality of life scores, respectively (59.08 vs. 52.94; P = 0.006). Moreover, women whose husbands were employees had higher quality of life and healthier health-promoting lifestyle compared to women whose husbands were unemployed (57.61 vs. 46.99 and 128.21 vs. 113.63; P = 0.001 and 0.002, respectively). However, quality of life and health-promoting lifestyle were not significantly correlated with other demographic characteristics. Besides, quality of life was positively correlated with health-promoting lifestyle. Conclusions: Middle-aged women’s quality of life is significantly correlated with their health-promoting lifestyle. Health authorities and policy makers can use these findings to develop and implement programs to promote middle-aged women’s engagement in health-promoting behaviors and thereby, improve their quality of life.