This study was conducted to determine the effects of a drug misuse and abuse prevention programon knowledge, attitude, and preventive behaviorsrelated to drug misuse and abuse, and depression in low-income elderly women in the urban area.

The design of this study was a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The subjects consisted of 26 in the experimental group and 23 in the control group. The program was performed for about 1hour, once a week for 5 weeks. Data was analyzed by the SAS(ver.8.02) computer program, and it included descriptive statistics, Fisher's exact test, Mann-Whitney U test, Wilcoxon signed ranks test, and ANCOVA.

There were statistically significant differences in knowledge, attitude, and preventive behaviors related to drug misuse and abuse, and depression between the experimental group and the control group.

This study showed that this prevention program of drug misuse and abuse is appropriate for low-income elderly women, Therefore this program is recommended as a nursing intervention strategy for the elderly.