Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between health promoting behaviors and state anger and modes of anger expression in elderly women. Method: In this descriptive correlational study, the participants were 143 elderly women who lived in D city. Data were collected from September to December, 2004. Personal interviews with a structured questionnaire were used. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficients with SPSS Win 11.0 program. Results: The score for health promoting behavior in the elderly women was above the mean score, The dimension with the highest score was nutrition and the dimension with the lowest score was exercise. A significant negative correlation was found between health promoting behaviors and state anger, anger-in(suppression of anger) and anger-out(expression of anger) in elderly women. But there was a significant positive correlation between health promoting behaviors and anger discussion. Conclusion: State anger, anger-out, anger-in as negative variable and anger discussion as a Positive variable were identified. These results suggest that anger should be considered as an important factor when nurses develop educational programs to enhance health promoting behavior in elderly women.