This study was undertaken in order to determine factors affecting health promoting lifestyle of elderly women.

The subjects were 299 elderly community residing women over the age 65 living in 2 large cities. The instruments used for this study were a survey of general characteristics, health promoting lifestyle(47items), perceived health status(6 items), self-efficacy(17 items), and social support(18 items). The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and Stepwise Multiple Regression.

The result of the study are as follows : The average item score for the health promoting lifestyle was 2.46, the highest score on the subscale was interpersonal support(M=2.83). A significant difference between age, education level, income, experience of smoking, alcohol, exercise, and health promoting lifestyle were found. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the most powerful predictor of health promoting lifestyle was social support(55%).

Social support accounted for 54% of the variance in health promoting lifestyle in the elderly women. Therefore, health promoting programs that increase social support should be developed to promote a healthy lifestyle of the elderly women.