Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

Background & Aims: In the next 50 years, a large part of the world's population will be made up of the elderly over sixty years old. Demographers have estimated that by the year 2050, the population of people over sixty years old will reach 2 billion people in the world. This means that there is one elderly person for every 5 people. In this way, not only developed countries but also developing countries make up a large part of the population of people over 60 years old. This excessive increase in the elderly on the one hand and the industrialization of societies and forgetting on the other hand has caused the issue of the elderly and their problems to become an acute issue. After entering the aging stage, the human body suffers from many diseases, of which blood pressure in the elderly is one of the most important because high blood pressure carries the risk of heart attack. As high blood pressure is dangerous, low blood pressure is equally dangerous. Blood pressure in the elderly is a type of silent disease, and the patient almost does not notice that his blood pressure is high, and only realizes that the elderly person needs special care. Health promotion is the science and art of changing the lifestyle to achieve the desired perfection and it includes behaviors during which a person should eat properly, exercise regularly, avoid harmful behaviors and drugs, protect against accidents, and recognize the signs in time. Illness in the physical dimension, control of emotions, feelings, and thoughts and coping with stress and problems in the mental and psychological dimension, independence and adaptability, and correction of interpersonal relationships in the social dimension and the cause of many chronic diseases, lifestyle and human behaviors and performing health-enhancing behaviors is one of the most important ways that people can maintain their health. The six important components of a health-promoting lifestyle include health responsibility, physical activity, nutritional habits, stress management, spiritual growth, and interpersonal relationships. Neuroticism or neuroticism is one of the five big factors that make up the personality, it is usually considered as a tendency towards anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and other negative emotions. All personality traits, including neuroticism, lie on a spectrum only some people are much more neurotic than others. In the Big Five personality theory, neuroticism is sometimes described as low emotional stability or negative emotions. Many researchers have considered neuroticism as one of the important factors in predicting many important social factors such as marriage, strength of relationships, and physical characteristics and diseases. In a study that examined the models related to health promotion in middle-aged women, it was found that health promotion models that emphasize the role of culture in mental health are more effective in eastern cultures and could be more powerful in Promoting the health of middle-aged women should be effective. In this study, the factors affecting the improvement of mental health (reduction of depression, anxiety, stress, impulsivity and vulnerability to stress), improvement of health behaviors (exercise, hygiene, taking medicines on time, etc.) and the ability of a person to make decisions In the daily affairs of life, the most important predictors of health promotion were introduced. The purpose of psychological flexibility is that it gives a person the opportunity to face his current situation and evaluate it, and through such activities, a person makes sure that he can effectively deal with that situation. The position works. In general, resilience is a process of the ability or outcome to successfully adapt to threatening situations, thus meaning exposure to risk and better than expected outcomes, maintaining positive adaptation despite stressful experiences, and recovering well after It is damage. Therefore, it seems that psychological flexibility acts as a moderator in performing health behaviors among its predictors. But so far, researches have not directly investigated this role and determined its limits. In previous studies, the relationship between psychological flexibility and personality traits has been discussed and a significant relationship between them has been reported. In various researches, the relationship between neuroticism and health-promoting behaviors has been examined and it has been determined that anxiety is a negative predictor of health-promoting behaviors. The present research aims to predict health-promoting behaviors based on neuroticism in Elderly people with high blood pressure with regard to the moderating role of psychological flexibility.
Methods: The present research is a descriptive-correlation design. The statistical population of the research was all the elderly who referred to the clinics of Urmia city in 1401. For this purpose, 200 participants were selected on a quota basis. The average age of the participants was 65.7 (standard deviation = 5.92 years) and 55.33% were male. The participants completed the questionnaire of demographic characteristics, short form of big five factors of personality (NEO-FFI), health promoting behaviors (HPLP-2) and psychological flexibility (CFI-20).
Results: The results showed that there is a significant inverse relationship between the subscales of health-promoting behaviors and neuroticism in the range (-0.73 to -0.9). Also, path analysis showed that neuroticism predicts health-enhancing behaviors through the mediation of psychological flexibility (NFI and CFI = 0.97) and (Chi-square = 56.3).
Conclusion: In explaining this finding, it can be said that personality factors, as the most influential dimensions and psychological traits, play an important role in determining the general and stable behaviors of humans, therefore, health-related behaviors and psychological health are influenced by important personality factors and personality traits. Since personality and personality factors are formed in early life and during development in humans, they play an important role in predicting behaviors related to human health, this effect is to the extent that when a person has high psychological flexibility However, neuroticism significantly causes health-damaging behaviors. Depression, anxiety, and stress in the elderly are a very important issue and to control their direct and indirect destructive effects, they should be directly prevented and treated. In this research, only elderly people with high blood pressure in Urmia City participated and also a questionnaire was used to participate in the research, it will be beneficial to conduct research with a wider community and use clinical interviews in future research. Mental health in the elderly with high blood pressure plays an important role in their health promotion behaviors.