ABSTRACT

Background: Healthy lifestyle behavior can be defined as controlling the behaviors that affect one’s health throughout their life, organizing their daily activities and choosing behaviors favorable to their health status. It can also be defined as the totality of behaviors based on the preservation of health according to age, the maintenance of the health order, and the continuous improvement of health. However, when physical activities are added into lifestyle, the status of the view on health may change.

Aim: In this context, our study aims to investigate the effects of programmed physical activities applied to housewives (HWs) participating in the "Kocaeli Mother City (Anne Sehir)" project on mothers' healthy living behaviors.

Methods: 552 HWs (age: 41.69±8.704), who were part of the “Kocaeli Mother City” project participated in our study. The Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale (HLBS) was applied before and after a Physical Activity Program (PAP) to HWs who voluntarily participated in our study. The 8-week PAP was performed 3 days a week with 2 hours each day. The scale consists of 52 questions and 6-item subscales. Health responsibility, physical activity, nutrition, interpersonal relationships, stress management, and self-realization (spiritual development) are the subscales. The effect of physical activity on the healthy lifestyle behaviors of HWs participating in the study was examined, and the results of the questionnaire were evaluated statistically.

Results: A significant difference was found in all subscales of the HLBS scores of the participants between the PAP pre-test and post-test measurements (p<0.05). When the HLBS scores of the participants were compared according to the weight variable before and after PAP, significant differences were found between some subscales (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Our study showed that although activities such as PAP, which can bring a difference to the lives of HWs, seem small, HWs participating in PAP increased their perception of healthy living. Considering that HWs will start to think that they are healthier after PAP and that they can reflect this to family members with whom they are in close communication, it is recommended that PAP-type activities should be performed especially by HWs.

Keywords: Housewife, Physical Activity, Healthy Living Behaviors