Efficacy of the health belief model on older adults’ physical activity at a geriatric care home in Baghdad City

Abstract

Background and objectives: Physical inactivity is responsible for 9% of all deaths worldwide. Furthermore, non-communicable diseases may be the primary cause of older adults' deaths worldwide. According to the WHO report on the Eastern Mediterranean Region, nearly (2.3 million) deaths occur each year, almost certainly due to a lack of physical activity. The study aims to the efficacy of the Health Belief - based intervention on older adults’ physical activity at a geriatric care home in Baghdad city. Design: A randomized controlled trial. Methods: A probability simple random sample of (N = 70) older adults from a homogeneous pool would be chosen. The study sample will be recruited from two geriatric care homes in Baghdad City. The sample will be randomly assigned into an experimental group (35 older adults) and a control group (35 older adults) and be evenly distributed with regard to their age and gender. Results: This finding indicated that prior to the intervention, the mean scores for all HBM concepts and physical activity were almost equal. However, following the intervention, the experimental group was statistically different from the control group, whereas the control group was not significantly different.