الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Maintaining the elders’ functional ability is essential for life. Mobility promotes health, preserves the ability to perform activities of daily living and maintains independence. As well, it prevents heart diseases, reduces elevated blood pressure, reduces the risk of osteoporosis, maintains appropriate weight and promotes sleep.Activity is a general term that implies a wide range of behaviors which may be classified into physical, social, leisure, and creative. Physical activities include exercise such as ADL, walking, swimming, and dancing. Social activities include games, cards, shopping, picnic, trips to restaurants and museums. Leisure activities include watching TV, listening to radio, gardening, and caring for others. Creative activities include painting, music, writing, crafts, and poetry.Nurses or caregivers play an important role in motivating, encouraging, and assisting elders to perform physical activities in conjunction with daily care, passive range of motion exercises can be performed in conjunction with bathing, and active exercise can become part of dressing, preparing meals, grooming, toileting and other ADL.Social interaction can be promoted by encouraging the elders to share in the different activities such as parties, trips. By providing elders with necessary materials such as reading books with large prints, and crafts can promote leisure and creative activities.The aim of the study is to:br Identify activity patterns of residents in elderly homes.Material and methodsbr The study was carried out in four elderly homes in Alexandria two governmental (Dar El Hana and Dar El Sadaa) and two private (Dar Ahmos Khalifa and Dar Mohamed Rajab).br The sample comprised all residents in the previously mentioned settings. Their number amounted to 188br>Data was collected by using two tools: I- Structured interview schedule was designed by the researcher and included items related to:1- Socio demographic characteristics of the elders such as age, sex, social status, level of education, occupation before retirement, monthly income.2- Medical history: presence of chronic disease and physical limitation that might affect activity pattern.3- Activity pattern of elders either physical, social, leisure, or creative activities.4- Factors affecting activity pattern of the residents.5- In order to assess the elders’ ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL) the Barthel scale was used.II- Observation check list:It was designed by the researcher and used to identify the different activities provided by the elderly homes to their residents. It included items related to the type of activities provided whether physical, social, leisure, or creative.Methods: - The selection of the two governmental homes was done randomly by ballot. Each elder was interviewed individually to obtain the necessary information and identify his activity patterns and associated factors. The time of the interview ranged from half to one hour. It was possible to interview 2 or 3 elders daily.