Health lifestyle change and health education preferences as perceived by older adult attendees and center directors at selected senior centers in Texas

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to discover the health lifestyle change and health education preferences of the older adults attending the fifteen senior centers affiliated with the Brazos Valley Area Agency on Aging. A second purpose was to ascertain the perceptions of senior center directors regarding older adult preferred health education programs. A group of 1 19 volunteer older adults and 14 center directors completed a forced choice pencil and paper survey developed by the researcher. Social cognitive theory; United States and Texas social policies; and older adult demographics, health habits, and health state shaped the instrument. The items focused upon gender, marital status, race, annual income, health problems, weight, perceived health state, health habits, health education program interest, health education program preference, program scheduling, and perceived self-efficacy, magnitude of self- efficacy, and strength of self-efficacy. The Statistical Program for Social Sciences was utilized for frequency distribution data. Variable patterns and themes were identified and summary tables compiled. Of the 8 health education programs, participants indicated most interest in Healthy Foods and expressed greatest preference for Healthy Foods and then, Make Medicines Work Best followed by Health Care Decision Making. The majority of participants indicated a strong level of self-efficacy for selecting new health lifestyle behaviors. Yet, they indicated a propensity toward selecting small, new health lifestyle changes that would be learned in Health Care Decision Making, Healthy Foods, and Physical Activity that they felt they would perform daily, Center director perceptions of attendee health education program preferences differed from those expressed by the older adult survey participants. Center directors were more sensitive to the lesser preferences of the participants Social cognitive theory served to identify macro level self- efficacy for health lifestyle change associated with health education preferences in this study. Therefore, by undertaking a micro analysis, educators could ascertain which small, new health lifestyle behaviors the participants would probably adopt and which program areas would require an emphasis such as interactive experience or participant modeling.