Comparing the Effects of Group and Family-Centered Education in the Elderly Lifestyle

Aims: Inappropriate lifestyle can lead to the development of diseases in elderly. Although education contributes to the improvement of lifestyle, finding a cost-effective education method is important. The aim of this research was to compare the effects of group and family-centered education on the elderly lifestyle. Materials Methods: This randomized controlled field trial with three-arm parallel-group was carried out on 150 old people aged from 60 to 74 years in Yasuj, Iran in 2015. The subjects were selected using purposive sampling method and randomly allocated into three groups with 50 subjects in each group including the group education, family-centered education, and control groups. The elderly lifestyle questionnaire was used to collect information before, 1, 2 and 3 months after educational interventions including family-centered education by home visits and group education in 8 sessions. The data were analyzed by SPSS 20 software using ANOVA with repeated measures, Chi square and Kruskal–Wallis tests and Tukey post hoc test. Findings: There was a growing trend in the lifestyle score of family-centered and group education groups in consecutive intervention periods (p 0.001). The intergroup comparison between the lifestyle scores also demonstrated a statistically significant difference among lifestyle scores of the three groups (p 0.001). This difference was between group and family-centered education groups with control group. Conclusion: Considering equally effects of the two education interventions, the higher cost and higher number of personnel required for home visits, group education is recommended as a suitable method for improving lifestyle of the elderly.