ABSTRACT
Although in many developed and developing countries, self care is the most important part of primary care, in Iran it has not been supported as well as its values. The aim of this study was to assess the views of general people living in south of Tehran about self care. This was a population based study in which 1200 individuals aged 15 years and over were interviewed using cluster sampling. A structured interview questionnaire which including 5 sections on regarding demographic characteristics, views on general health, views on self care knowledge, interest and practice, views on barrier and enabler factors for self care, and views on sources of information was used. Content validity and cronbach's alpha coefficient was used for its validity and reliability. Data were analyzed through SPSS version 11. The mean age of participants was 27.9 +/- 5.2 years. Six hundred and fifty eight respondents [55%] stated they were not knowledgeable on self care, 986 [82%] and 1035 [86%], were interested and self rated themselves active regarding healthy life style, respectively. In practice, only fifty three participants [4%] were actually active in eating >/= 7 glasses of water daily, 31 [3%] stated they ate more than five portions of fruits daily and 51 [4%] did physical activity more than 3 hours weekly. The findings of this study have highlighted the significant role of information in doing self care activities