Association among health promoting lifestyle, self-care agency and health-related quality of life in Bai ethnic elderly patients with hypertension in Yunnan Province

Abstract Background: The purpose of this research was to explore the association among health promoting lifestyle, self-care agency and health-related quality of life in Bai ethnic elderly patients with hypertension, as well as the related factors of hypertension self-care abilities. Methods: A total of 472 Bai ethnic hypertension elderly were enrolled into this study voluntarily from 5 rural communities of Bai ethnic group. The Exercise of Self-Care Agency Scale (ESCAS) was to employed to assess Self-care ability of hypertension for the subjects, Health-promoting lifestyle profile Ⅱ(HPLP-Ⅱ) was utilized to evaluate the health behavior, and MOS 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) were chosen to assess the HRQOL for the studying population. All descriptive analyses, including demographic characteristics, socio-economic status and clinical characteristics were stratified by Bai hypertensive elderly. Pearson correlation analysis model was used to examine the association among health promoting lifestyle, self-care agency and health-related quality of life in Bai ethnic elderly with hypertension. Multiple linear regression analysis model was used to investigate the influencing factors of SF-36 scale. Results: The HPLP-Ⅱ, ESCA and of HRQOL levels of the subjects were not favorable, and the mean HPLP and ESCA scores had no significant statistical variance among different age groups. Significant statistical differences were found on Bai elderly subjects in the domain of PF and PH as well as the overall score in SF-36(all P＜0.01), 60-64 year group had the highest score of above three domains in SF-36 than other age groups. The SF-36 scores were positively associated with HPLP and ESCA levels. Conclusion: The HPLP-Ⅱ, ESCA and of HRQOL levels of the Bai subjects were poor in the Bai ethnic hypertensive elderly. The HRQOL scores of subjects were positively connected with HPLP-Ⅱ, ESCA abilities. More attentions should be paid to the life-style, healthy behaviors, and self-care abilities improvements to enhance the better HRQOL of Bai minority elderly with hypertension.