Investigation Of Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices On Nutrition And Physical Activity Among The Elderly In Qingdao

21 centrury is the times of the elderly. At prencent, the population of the elderly is increasing at the speed of 2.4% per year. And the elderly problem has been the focus among the countries all over the world. China is the country with the largest the elderly population, and is one of the countries with the highest the elderly population increasing speed. It is supposed that the rate of the elderly will come to 20% in 2050. In our country, the elderly period came with the poor economic situation, and the society ensurence system isn't maturity. Therefore, it is unrealistic to improve the health of the elderly by medical treatments. On the contrary, it is reasonable to start with the first prevention and change the unhealthy life-styles, especially make the elderly form healthy diet and sports habits. The investigating the status of knowledge, attitude, practice on nutrition and physical activity of the elderly in Qingdao city, this study was to explore the health problems of the elderly and the influential factors, and provide effective countermeasure for improving the health level of the elderly and developing healthy-promoting activities.1. Questionnaire designing and evaluationThe questionnaire was designed on the base of extensively collecting materials by referring to lots of documents and face-to-face interviews.The correlation coefficients between knowledge, attitude and practice were 0.66, 0.70 and 0.98. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.80. Split-half reliability coefficient was 0.71, 0.7. The cumulative of six principal components analyzed was 73%. The result indicated that the reliability of the questionnaire is higher, and the construction is more reasonable.2. The investigation on health knowledge, attitude and practice of the elderly in QingDao.(1) Health knowledge. The correlation analysis showed that there was a statistically significant difference on the knowledge score between different counties, economic situation, education levels, interests, health status. The mean score on health knowledge of Chengyang was, and was significantly lower than another two counties. The mean score of Shinan was highest among the three counties, but was lower than Old People's University. The main knowledge resources of subjects were books, newspaper, magazines, television and radio. In Chengyang, 56% of subjects obtained health knowledge by TV, and 5% of subjects were made be a doctor by prolonged illness. Newspaper and TV were the main choices of the others. 53% of subjects thought knowledge from TV and radio was reliable, followed by books (31%), newspaper, magazines and experience (21%). The reliability of professional lectures (15%) was lower. In Licang and Shinan, the most popular resources were TV, books, professional lecture and experience. In Chengyang, TV was the most popular resource, followed by books and professional lectures.(2) Health attitude. Attitude of the elderly from county with better economic situation were more favorable. More than 60% of subjects reported the main factors influencing health were physical exercise, balance diet and well mental status. About 80% of subjects were cognizant of the differences between laboring and physical exercise. There was some diversity between counties about the importance that healthy people took exercise. In addition, 53% of subjects agreed that commonly balance diet could meet the nutrition that body needed, and 90% of subjects accepted balance diet as the means of nutrition intake.(3) Health practice. The cooking ways the elderly chose included stir-fry, braise, red-bake. The elderly choosing bloat were mainly from Chengyang. The rank of the diet practice scores from low to high was Chengyang, Licang, Shinan and Older Peoples' University. 19% of subjects were taking nutrition supplements, introduced by doctor, relatives and friends. The main factors influencing diet was poor nutrition knowledge, economic problems, inconvenient shopping and diseases. Economic problem was the crucial issue of the elderly from Chengyang, and the lack of nutrition knowledge was the common factor among the three counties.38% of subjects didn't take exercise. And 49% of subjects come from Chengyang. 28% of subjects taking exercise took exercise 3 times or more per week and the duration coming to 30min or more per time. The main purpose of taking exercise was body-building. The main events that the elderly choose were walking, fast walking, jogging and shadowboxing. The main influential factors of taking exercise were interest, time, instruct, fields and establishment. The problem that some elderly didn't take exercise because of diseases couldn't be ignored.(4) The correlation analysis on health knowledge, attitude and practiceThe correlation analysis on healthy knowledge, attitude and practice showed that there was significantly positive correlation with each other. It was concluded that when developing the health-promoting activities among the elderly the well health practice could be improved by enhancing the elderly to study health knowledge and helping the elderly gain correct health attitude.Conclusions:(1) A lack of health knowledge among the elderly was a universal phenomenon in Qingdao, and the knowledge score was notably influenced by economic situation, education level;(2)The attitude of the elderly on nutrition and physical activity was better, especially patients. But there were some false health concepts among healthy and sub-healthy people;(3) There were great differences between counties about the practice on nutrition and physical activity. Compared with the elderly from area with better economic situation, the elderly from area with poorer economic situation had poorer diet practice and poorer consciousness on taking exercise;(4) The status health knowledge, attitude and practice of the elderly from counties with poorer economic situation were still the weakest tache of this city on the elderly health;(5) Compared with common older people, the elderly from old people's university have a better status. It was supposed that enlarging the area of Older People's University was an effective way to improve the health knowledge, attitude and practice level of the elderly.