Payesh
2010; 9: 91-99
Accepted for publication: 10 March 2009
[EPub a head of print-7 March 2010]

Objective(s): To develop and validate a questionnaire for measuring healthy lifestyle in Iranian elderly.
Methods: This is a triangulation study, developed in Isfahan city 1385-86. An item pool was developed based on semi-structured interviews with elder people and experts in Geriatrics, literature review and other lifestyle questionnaires. We used principal-component analysis (used SPSS15) and a focus group to reduce the items and assessment the face and content validity. Internal reliability was estimated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient.
Results: The questionnaire contains 46 items and 5 dimensions including exercise, nutrition, prevention, stress management and relationship. The validity was confirmed by experts and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.76.
Conclusion: The Elderly Lifestyle Questionnaire is a valid and reliable instrument and will enable researchers to investigate lifestyle patterns in the elderly and to assess the impact of interventions of lifestyle change in this population. The instrument warrants further testing and development with different elderly populations.