Introduction and Aim: Aging is considered as the phenomenon of the day in the health arena of the world and
Iran. It is anticipated that there will be an explosion of aging population in Iran in about 2031 and 20-25% of the
population will be aged over 60 years. With aging, chronic diseases also increase and diminish the functional
ability of older people. On the other hand, increased healthcare costs should be also added to this issue. Health
promotion is a concept of process that continues throughout life. As much as health promotion is important in
children and adults, it is equally important in older people. In fact, the elderlies, as a group, also acquire many
benefits from health promotion behaviors. Due to the increasing elderly population, geriatric health promotion
and enhancing the health level of older people is proposed as a health priority that should be properly planned.
Hence, the present study has been conducted in this regard and aims to identify behaviors of health promotion
and chronic diseases of aging in the elderly people of Iranshahr-Iran.
Materials and Methods: The present research is a cross-sectional descriptive study whose population consists
of 425 elderly people aged 60 years and over, who lived in the city of Iranshahr*, IR Iran. The random cluster
sampling method has been used to select the research samples. The required information was collected using a
questionnaire which was distributed among the older people through visiting their homes; then, the collected
data was statistically analyzed using the statistical software of SPSS version 13.
Findings: The research findings show that the mean age of older people is 66.33 ? 7.7 and the highest
frequency belongs to the age group of 60 years and the maximum age is 92 years. 69.5% of the older people
were in the age group of the young elderly (60-69 years) and 44% of them lived with their married children; also
55.8%, 81.9%, 70.5%, and 74.4% of them were respectively female, illiterate, married, and unemployed. The
mean score of geriatric health promotion behaviors was 6.1 ? 1.87 in the range of 0-11 and 54.9% of them got
the score of the inappropriate health promotion behavior. The most frequent chronic diseases of older people
were respectively joint problems (78.9%), sensory problems (64.1%), and hypertension (56.6%). No significant
relationship was observed between the score of health promotion behaviors and “the gender, lifestyle and marital
status of the older people”, but there was statistically a significant relationship between the score of health
promotion behaviors and “the age, education, and job of the older people”.
Conclusion: Providing training programs for health promotion behaviors in elderly people can improve these
behaviors and enhance their health and quality of life and reduce the incidence of chronic diseases in them. The
goal of health promotion behaviors is to maintain performance, independence and quality of life; and many
studies have demonstrated that the elderly people who aged 60 years and over benefit from health promotion
behaviors more than middle-aged people.