Abstract

PURPOSE
This study is aimed at testing the effect of health promotion program on health promoting behavior and cardiovascular risk factors of middle-aged women.
METHOD
The research design was the nonequivalent control group pre-post test. Twelve middle-aged women were the experimental group and ten were the control group. The 8-week health promotion program was given to the experimental group. There were health promotion theories, flexibility and muscle strength exercise, cardiopulmonary endurance exercise, nutrition, stress management, cancer prevention and early detection, management of menopause and wrap-up in health promotion program for middle-aged women. The measurement tool was Health Promoting Behavior developed by researcher using serum cholesterol, obesity rate, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure as cardiovascular risk factors.
RESULT
The experimental group showed a higher score of health promoting behavior than the control group. There were no differences on cardiovascular risk factors(cholesterol, obesity rate, diastolic blood pressure) between the experimental and control groups except systolic blood pressure.
CONCLUSION
Conclusively, this health promotion program for middle-aged women was effective in increasing health promotion behaviors, but wasn't effective in decreasing cardiovascular risk factors except the systolic blood pressure. It seems it's necessary to re-study this using more samples and a longer duration of the program, and smaller mortality rate.

• Keywords: Health promotion program; Health promoting behavior; Cardiovascular risk factors; Middle-aged women