Evaluation of the effect of elderly health promotion program in Taiwan

Objectives: The study aims to monitor the elderly health promotion program (including doing exercise, healthy eating, tobacco smoking control, mental health, social participation, and so on.) Methods: A variety of databases were applied for monitoring, including the 2007 and 2009 Survey on Adults' Smoking Behaviors data for second-hand tobacco exposure rate and smoking rate; the 2007 and 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data for physical activity; the 1999-2000 Nutrition and Health Survey (NAHSIT) and 2009 BRFSS data for the proportion of eating five servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Furthermore, the 2005 and 2009 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data were used to assess their social participation rate. Mortality of suicide was cited from the 2009 Vital Statistics. Results: In 2009, the proportion of elderly eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily was 31.4%, while that of doing exercise in previous 2 weeks increased to 62.6%.The smoking rate of adults aged 65 and over decreased from 17.15% in 2007 to 12.13% in 2009. Moreover, In 2009, the second-hand tobacco exposure rate of older adults in non-smoking area significantly decreased to 5.29%. About 40.5% of elderly people were involved in some kinds of social participation. Elderly mortality of suicide was reduced. Conclusions: In spite of a short period after introduction, elderly health promotion program took positive effect on lifestyle modification. Further study should be done to monitor the long-term effect of elderly health promotion.