Research Article The Relationship between Health Promoting Behaviors and Quality of Life in Nursing Home Residents in Kayseri Vesile Fenol, 1 Demet Ünalan, 1 Ferhan Soyuer, 1 and Mahmut Argün 2 1 Erciyes University, H.B. Vocational School of Health, 38039 Kayseri, Turkey 2 Erciyes University, H.B. Vocational School of Health and Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, School of Medicine, Kayseri, Turkey Correspondence should be addressed to Vesile S ¸enol; drvesilesenol@gmail.com Received 16 July 2013; Revised 2 December 2013; Accepted 3 December 2013; Published 4 February 2014 Academic Editor: Martin J. Sadowski Copyright © 2014 Vesile S ¸enol et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background and Aims. Healthy lifestyle behaviors are the major determinant of both prevention health and health related quality of life. Te aim of this study was to examine the relationship between health-promoting behaviors and quality of life of elderly individuals living in nursing homes. Methods. Te study was performed between October 2008 and 2009, in the city of Kayseri in Turkey, upon 136 individuals, aged 65 and above, living in the Gazioglu Nursing Home. A sociodemographic questionnaire, Standardized Mini Mental Test, Health Promoting Lifestyle Behaviors Profle (HPLP), and WHOQOL-OLD module were used for the gathering of data. Results. Te overall HPLP and quality of life (QoL) scores were 118.06 ± 20.54 and 43.45 ± 10.30, respectively. More than half of the participants have higher points than the mean QoL scores. Te HPLP scores of these subjects were signifcantly higher compared to those with lower points than mean QoL scores. Tere was a positive relationship between the overall HPLP and WHOQOL-OLD mean scores, except for the autonomy and sensorial function domains. Conclusions. Te study result showed that health-promoting behaviors are positively associated with better quality of life scores in the elderly subjects living in a nursing home. 1. Introduction As in most other countries, the proportion of the elderly people is increasing every year in Turkey due to decreased birth rates and increased life expectancy. Te proportion of those aged 65 years and older in Turkey was approximately 7.3% in 2011 [1]. In Turkey older adults might feel happier living with their sons and accepting support from their children. Because of the aging society of Turkey and the trend toward more emphasis on the nuclear family than on the extended family, are needed personal support system to an institutionalized, public support system with the aging of the population. Increased longevity health promotion behaviors become even more important particularly with regard to maintaining function and independence and improving quality of life [2]. Healthy behaviors are the sum of all the behaviors an individual displays or believes in, with the aim of promoting health and preventing disease. A healthy lifestyle is defned as controlling all behaviors that might afect an individual’s health and arranging his/her daily activities by choosing appropriate behaviors according to his/her own health state [3, 4]. In many studies from diferent countries, it has been established that at least 50% of deaths per year are related to unhealthy lifestyle behaviors [5, 6]. Aging is an expected and accepted physiological process, in which an individual’s physical and mental powers are slowly lost, with no return. Apart from individual diferences and genetic factors, the aging process is afected to a large extent by lifestyle, occupation, nutrition, chronic diseases, environmental factors, and psychosocial characteristics [7, 8]. During this aging process, some physical, psychological, and social changes occur, and this afects the lifestyle, quality of life, and life expectancy of the elderly. Health related quality of life (HRQoL) is a relatively new concept; it focuses upon health status and happiness and is highly sensitive for the measurement of the very important detrimental and destruc- tive efects of chronic diseases upon the geriatric population Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Geriatrics Volume 2014, Article ID 839685, 8 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/839685