Effective factors on health-promoting lifestyle among Iranian chemical veterans in 2014 based on health promotion model : a path analysis

Abstract EN

Health-promoting behaviors can enhance physical and mental health among individuals with disability, particularly veterans.

Objectives: The current study aimed to examine both one-way direct and indirect effects of the factors of the Health Promotion Model (HPM) on health-promoting behaviors in chemical veterans from Ilam province in Iran.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2014.

In this study, 239 moderate-to-severe chemical veterans from Illam province supported by the veterans’ affairs department of Ilam were evaluated via census sampling.

Data including health-promoting behaviors, perceived self-efficacy, perceived barriers and benefits, perceived social support, and perceived health status were collected using standard questionnaires.

Results: The results show that the HPM is a poor predictor of the health-promoting lifestyles of chemical veterans (R2 = 15%).

Social support (factor loading = 0.38) is the strongest predictor of health-promoting behaviors and it influences such behaviors directly, while perceived barriers (factor loading = -0.11) and perceived self-efficacy (factor loading = 0.02) indirectly predict behavior through social support.

Conclusions: Perceived social support is the most important factor that influences health-promoting behaviors.

Increasing social support by enhancing self-efficacy and decreasing perceived barriers can improve health-promoting behaviors among veterans.