Health-promoting behaviors and quality of life in older adults with hypertension as compared to a community control group

Abstract

Hypertension (HTN) related to health-promoting behaviors (HPB) and quality of life (QOL) in older Chinese has not been clearly identified. We sought to compare the HPB and QOL of elderly adults (aged ≥60) living with HTN in China to a community normotensive control group. Using multistage stratified cluster sampling, a sample of 543 elderly people with HTN and 550 with normotension were randomly selected and asked to complete questionnaires. The Chinese version of the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP-IICR) and The World Health Organization Quality of life—BREF instrument (WHOQOL-BREF) were used to evaluate the HPB and QOL of elderly adults. As compared to the normotensive elderly, the hypertensive elderly showed significantly lower scores in their spiritual growth and health management (both P < 0.05), but not in the other three domains. Also, the participants with HTN showed significantly lower scores in the QOL overall and physical health (both P < 0.05), but not in other factors, as compared to the participants without HTN. Each HPLP-IICR domain score among the elderly with or without HTN were significantly correlated with their QOL scores (all P < 0.01). It is suggested that more attention should be paid to improving the spiritual growth and health management of HBP, and thus the overall quality of life among hypertensive patients.