Educational Intervention for Promoting Healthy Lifestyles among Women

 

Sample Research Paper

Introduction

Health is fundamental for every human to regulate social, personal and occupational functioning (Peters et al., 2016). Health is vital to spend an independent and healthy life, which is the necessity of all human beings. Poor health leads to many diseases and disorders.
Poor health does not merely lead the physical illness but mental issues as well such as depression, anxiety and other related issues. Unfortunately, technical advancement has made human life more mechanical, and people practice a sedentary lifestyle (Seyedfatemi, Salsali, Rezaee, & Rahnavard, 2014). Due to the sedentary life style health of women are decreasing on a high scale (Stormo, Saraiya, Hing, Henderson, & Sawaya, 2014).

The literature is enriched with the study that highlights the numerous mental and physical health issues among women over the last few years (Seyedfatemi, Salsali, Rezaee, & Rahnavard, 2014). Health is fundamental among all age group but particularly women above 30 years of age experience more health-related issues (Herrmann, Hall, & Proietto, 2018). In the early or late middle age, the women experience substantial physical issues or decline such as menopausal, reproductive and other related issues (Stormo, Saraiya, Hing, Henderson, & Sawaya, 2014). The women from middle age experience substantial issue in their mental and physical health (Herrmann, Hall, & Proietto, 2018). They need proper attention and care to deal with physical alteration and to cope up with the changes. Multiple reasons cause low physical activity among females; therefore they experience other health-related issues (Seyedfatemi, Salsali, Rezaee, & Rahnavard, 2014). The living standards are unhealthy that leads to health-oriented complication (Stormo, Saraiya, Hing, Henderson, & Sawaya, 2014). But the living standards found to healthy as women are unaware of their physical or bodily need after 30 years of age, therefore they practice poor living standards.  It is important to educate a female for developing a healthy living standard to improve the quality of health (Herrmann, Hall, & Proietto, 2018).

The literature is enriched with the evidence-based study that highlights the effectiveness of the academic intervention to promote awareness and to improve the living standards as well (Seyedfatemi, Salsali, Rezaee, & Rahnavard, 2014). According to recent data, the most effective way to promote living standards among women is educational interventions (Herrmann, Hall, & Proietto, 2018). Through educational intervention delivery, the healthy living standard among female can be promoted (Herrmann, Hall, & Proietto, 2018). The current study would highlight the overview of an educational intervention in promoting a healthy lifestyle among women above 30 years of age.

Statement of the Problem

In the current time, health is the focus of attention of the researchers, physicians, psychologists and sociologist due to unhealthy living standards (Stormo, Saraiya, Hing, Henderson, & Sawaya, 2014). In the mechanical era, people prefer to indulge in the sedentary lifestyle and pays the least attention to their health maintenance activity. The fundamental reason for their poor health found to be their living standards (Seyedfatemi, Salsali, Rezaee, & Rahnavard, 2014). The poor diet, lack of physical activity, poor health habits and sleep patterns (insomnia or hypersomnia) are the most common lifestyle habits among women. The females of all ages indulge in unhealthy living standards, but as they grow older, physical activity reduces, and they become more unhealthy. The dilemma is that women after their thirty years of age need special care, but unfortunately, they found to be unaware of healthy living standards (Herrmann, Hall, & Proietto, 2018). Therefore, it is mandatory to educate them, for paying attention to their living standards to improve the quality of life. Here the question arises how the healthy lifestyle can be promoted among females as it is hard to promote a healthy living style through one program or only pamphlet or broachers. The proper interaction with healthy lifestyle awareness and behavioural practices are mandatory (Herrmann, Hall, & Proietto, 2018). The intervention might be helpful to promote healthy health habit among women to promote their lifestyles (Herrmann, Hall, & Proietto, 2018). The literature provides a massive body of researches that recommended through educational intervention the healthy lifestyle can be promoted to achieve the desirable results (Stormo, Saraiya, Hing, Henderson, & Sawaya, 2014). The women practice poor living standard due to lack of awareness, therefore the current study aimed at investigating the impact of the educational intervention for promoting healthy lifestyles among women.

The research question of the current study is ‘’can an educational intervention improve the life styles of women.

Description of three Research Papers

The literature suggested that the educational intervention delivery is effective in promoting healthy living standards among middle ages women. The below mentioned studies qualitatively or quantitatively define the effectiveness of the educational intervention in promoting healthy life style among women.

	First Author	Year	Publication	Population	Study Location	Study design	Main outcome Measure
01	Mahdipour	2015	The effectiveness of educational intervention to promote the healthy life styles among middle aged women	Middle aged women	Lenjan city of Isfahan province, Iran	Quasi-experimental design	The results suggested that the experimental group depicted improved lifestyles as compared to the control group.
02	Parsapure	2016	Impact of Health-Promoting Educational Intervention of Life Styles (Nutrition Behavior, Physical Activity, and Mental Health) Related to Vaginal Health among Reproductive-Aged women with vaginites	Females of reproductive age 15-49	Iran	Experimental Study	The outcome of the study recommended the increase in lifestyles among females n three domains, i.e. physical activity, nutritional behaviour and Mental Health.
03	Nazari	2016	The effectiveness of Life Style Educational Program in Health Promoting Behaviors and Menopausal Symptoms in 45-60 Years-Old Women in Marvdast, Iran	45-65 years old women	Marvdasht, Iran.	Experimental study	The results of the study indicated that the experimental group secured high scores on health-promoting profile and MRS.

Qualitative Interpretation. The details description of the above studies has been elaborated following. The qualitative description elaborated the significant similarities and differences between all three studies.

Study 1. A study has been carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the educational intervention to promote healthy lifestyles among middle-aged women. The 88 women of middle age have been selected from Iran using randomised sampling technique. The experimental design was used as three months prior and after the study the pre and post rating was taken. The pre ratings have been taken using live style questionnaire. The researcher made a demographic sheet and lifestyle based questionnaire was used to collect the data. The educational intervention was delivered in the five sessions. The results of the study recommended positive results in all three domains of health, i.e. physical activity, interpersonal relation and mental health (Mahdipour, Shahnazi, Hassanzadeh, & Sharifirad, 2015).

Study 2. An experimental study was carried out among females of reproductive age (15-49 years) to investigate the impact of the educational intervention to promote healthy lifestyles i.e. physical activity, mental health and nutrient behaviours. Three hundred fifty women from reproductive age have been selected through stratified two-stage clustered sampling and simple randomisation from 10 health centre of Kermanshah, Iran. A demographic and lifestyle based questionnaire on both the controlled and experimental groups. The educational intervention comprised of a pamphlet, social media, phone contact, and face to face education. The control group was not given any educational intervention. The pre and post-test were administered to assess the results of the intervention. The results were analysed sung chi-square, t-test, paired sample t-test, and covariance of analysis. The results of the experimental study suggested that a significant difference has been found in the experimental and control group the intervention group (28.48 ± 0.38) and control group (23.65 ± 1.23). The educational intervention significantly increased the lifestyle scores of the experimental group (P < 0.001) as compared to control group (Parsapure et al.,  2016).

Study 3. An experimental study has been carried out to assess the effectiveness of educational lifestyle program in health-promoting behaviour and menopausal symptoms age 40-65 years old women in Marvdasht in Iran. The 200 postmenopausal women have been selected from Iran using the simple random sampling technique. The data was collected using the demographical sheet, Walker Health Promoting lifestyle profile (WHPLS) and Menopause rating scale. The t-test, chi-square, descriptive statistics and paired sample t-test was carried out. The results of the study indicated that an Intervention group were significantly high on the health-promoting lifestyle and MRS (P< .05) as compared to the control group (Nazari, Farmani, Kaveh, Ghaem, 2016).

Critique 1. The first study ‘’ The effectiveness of the educational intervention to promote the healthy lifestyles among middle-aged women’’ was effective in bringing about positive results. Although the study was effective in promoting healthy lifestyles among middle-age women. A few drawbacks have also been found that adversely affected the effectiveness of the study. For example, the assessment of lifestyle was done using a researcher made questionnaire and demographic performance. No standardised test was used to assess the reliability and validity of the results, which was found to be a negative aspect of the study. Secondly, the male participants have not been included in the study, although the husband plays a significant role in the moral support of their wives. The results of the study were not cross-culturally reliable, as numerous intervening variable has not been sufficiently controlled.

Critique 2. The second study ‘’ Impact of Health-Promoting Educational Intervention of LifeStyles (Nutrition Behavior, Physical Activity, and Mental Health) Related to Vaginal Health among Reproductive-Aged women with vaginitis’’ recommended that the significant difference in the scores of the Experimental group. The study has a strong point which was good communication between the researcher and the participants that increased the awareness among participates regarding the reproductive, mental and other health-oriented areas. Although the results were reliable a few gaps have been noticed in the current study such as the study has been conducted in the clinical setting. Therefore the presence of the researcher found to be an intervening variable.

Critique 3. The research ‘’ The effectiveness of Life Style Educational Program in Health Promoting Behaviors and Menopausal Symptoms in 45-60 Years-Old Women in Marvdast, Iran’’ recommended that the after educational intervention program the experimental group reported significant improvement in their lifestyle. The study possesses some strength as the face to face interviews were carried out to obtain the relevant information from the participants. The face to face interview increases the reliability of the results as the participant cannot skip any question due to ambiguity or comprehension issue. Furthermore, the literate or illiterate both participant can perform better in providing accurate information. Secondly, the scale to measure the Menopause symptoms (MRS) was a standardised international scale; that increases the reliability and validity of the scale. Besides all-important finding, the study found to have some gaps. Such as the participants were asked to recall the symptoms of menopause over the past few months, which might raise the biasness issues. The participants must not be aware of the actual menopausal symptom.

Summary of the Comparison and Contrast of the Method used in the Paper

         The above three types of research have been selected to assess the role of educational intervention in promoting Lifestyles among women age rage 30 0r above. The three experimental studies have been going through to assess the effectiveness of the educational intervention among women. The results of all three studies suggested that that the educational intervention plays a significant role in promoting the healthy lifestyles among women either they belong to reproductive age, menopause of middle adulthood. In the first study, the middle-aged women lifestyles have been assessed using a non-standard test; therefore the result might not be reliable. In contrast, the second study that has been carried out on the Educational Intervention of LifeStyles (Nutrition Behavior, Physical Activity, and Mental Health) Related to Vaginal Health among Reproductive-Aged women with vaginitis covered the concerned aspect very well. The good compunction between researcher and participants were found to be encouraging for promoting a healthy lifestyle as well as awareness among the participants. For the critiques, the presence of the research in the clinical setting was the intervening variable that was affecting the reliability of the result. Apart from the second study was found to be effective as compared to the first one.

        The third study was carried out with the same to assess the effectiveness of Life Style Educational Program in Health Promoting Behaviors and Menopausal Symptoms in 45-60 Years-Old Women in Marvdast, Iran. As the study used a standardised test for pre and post assessment, therefore the reliability of the result cannot be denied. Secondly, the data collection was carried out using a face-to-face interview technique, which provides accurate and in-depth information about the concerned phenomenon. The only gap that has been noticed was lack biases of the participants in recalling the past menopausal symptoms. In short, the third article was found to effective in providing a valid and reliable result with the least limitation in the study. Considering the all above three studies, it can be concluded that the educational intervention is effective in promoting the healthy health habits among participants.  

Conclusion

      As the health, the status of women is crucial after their thirty years of age. Therefore the educational intervention was found to effective. Promoting healthy behavioural habit can prevent many health-related issues. The health behaviour may also pave the good old ageing stages in future.  The lifestyle educations have become fundamental for promoting the healthy living standard and improve the quality of life among patients. All three studies that have been included above recommended significant results to promote healthy lifestyles among women. The finding of the experimental studies should be circulated in the community through social media, pamphlet, broacher, and other means as well. A more in-depth study is needed to assess the cultural and cross-cultural variation to promote a healthy lifestyle throughout the world. The current study focused on Iranian culture, but on the broadening spectrum, different countries of the world should be studied to assess the healthy or unhealthy lifestyle.

Furthermore, the effectiveness of the intervention based education must be evaluated to pre and post differences. Such awareness program may bring about the positive results in the improvement of the health status of a female. More studies should be carried out in future to ass as well as manage the health risk and health-compromising behaviour to promote healthy health habits among women of all ages.