Abstract

Increasing healthy behaviors is the major challenge facing health professionals and populations globally. The purpose of this study was to ascertain if a relationship exists between self-efficacy and health promotion behaviors in a sample of older Iranian adults. The organizing framework for the study was Pender's revised Health Promotion Model (Pender, 1996). The study participants were 102 community-dwelling old people residing in Yazd district. The results supported Pender's Health Promotion Model in which self-efficacy accounted for 58 of variance in health promotion behaviors. Health promotion behaviors were found to be correlated with level of education. Additionally, there were associations between self-efficacy and gender, marital status, and level of education. It was concluded that interventions aimed at improving self-efficacy may improve health promotion behaviors of older adults.