Association between health-related empowerment and health-protective behaviors among community-dwelling older adults

Background: Empowerment is a broad concept seen as a critical approach for helping older adults who lack power to gain control over various aspects of their lives, including their health-protective behaviors. Aim: The study investigated the association between health-related empowerment and health-protective behaviors in older adults. Design: A cross-sectional correlational research design was used by recruiting a convenient sample of 200 older adults. Tools: The Elder Health Empowerment Scale and Health Protective Behavior Scale were used to collect the participant data. Results: It showed a significant positive correlation between health-related empowerment and health-protective behaviors in older adults (r = 0.891, p = 0.001), indicating that as health-related empowerment increases, engagement in health-protective behaviors also increases. Furthermore, health-related empowerment accounted for a large proportion of the variation in health-protective behaviors (85.7 %). Conclusion: Overall, these findings suggest that there is a need for interventions to improve the health-related empowerment of older adults, particularly in terms of their ability to turn their health goals into actionable plans, overcome barriers to health, and make informed healthcare choices. However, the studied older adults generally engage in health protective behaviors; there is variability in the extent to which they engage in specific behaviors, which may provide valuable insights for developing targeted health promotion programs and interventions.