The relationship between individual empowerment and health-promoting lifestyle among women NGOs in northern Iran

INTRODUCTION According to the health-promoting approach, people should be empowered such that they take responsibility for their health and follow a healthy lifestyle. Empowerment is a process in which people confront problems and tasks in their lives in order to better control them. This study was conducted to specify the relationship between individual empowerment and health-promoting lifestyle among women NGOs of northern Iran. METHODS In this cross-sectional study, 290 women NGOs of Guilan Province were selected randomly using multistage cluster sampling, and were examined using the questionnaire of health-promoting lifestyle profile II and individual empowerment inventory scale. Data were analyzed using STATA 11 software via one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and multivariate linear regression. RESULTS Both variables of individual empowerment and health-promoting lifestyle were of favorable status among the population under study. The highest score in individual empowerment belonged to the domain of social support and the highest score in lifestyle belonged to spiritual growth. A significant relationship was found between individual empowerment and health-promoting lifestyle (p<0.001). The highest correlation between individual empowerment and dimensions of health-promoting lifestyle was related to interpersonal relationships. In addition, it was specified that 21% of lifestyle variance could be explained by individual empowerment. CONCLUSION There is a relation between individual empowerment and health-promoting lifestyle. Individual empowerment is a predictive variable to have a health-promoting lifestyle. Therefore, by increasing individuals' empowerment, their healthy lifestyle can be promoted.