Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to identity the effects of a health promotion program for rural elderly people on self efficacy, health problems, farmers syndrome and quality of life.
METHOD
The study was a nonequivalent control group pre-post experimental design. The data collection was performed from April 12th, 2003 to August 2nd, 2003. The subjects were selected at Mari Myun Geochang Gun in Korea. Forty-four elders were included in the experimental group and 45 elders were included in the control group. The 16-week health promotion program was given to the experimental group. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, chi-square-test, t-test, paired t-test with SPSS/Win 10.0 program.
RESULT
The experimental group showed a lower scores of health problems and farmers syndrome than the control group, and higher scores of quality of life than the control group. There were no significant differences in self efficacy.
CONCLUSION
From the above results, it can be concluded that the health promotion program for rural elderly is an effective intervention for improving the rural elderly's quality of life and reducing health problems and farmer's syndrome. Therefore, development of strategy that can spread the health promotion program for rural elderly to the elderly of other rural areas are needed.

• Keywords: Health promotion program; Self efficacy; Health problem; Farmers syndrome; Quality of life