Hashem Mohamadian, Adel Pourkian‎

Abstract

Introduction: One of the health goals of elderly period is to increase the quality of life ‎without disability. By increasing the ratio of social participation of the elderly people, ‎the risk of beginning disability can be reduced. Therefore, the aim of present study is to ‎investigate the relationship between social participation and its dimensions (attitude ‎and performance) with the quality of life and its dimensions (life totality, health, social ‎relationship, freedom and independence, home and neighborhood, mental and ‎psychological health, financial status and leisure time activities) among the elderly ‎people.‎ Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was descriptive-analytical type. ‎Data was selected and collected from 300 elderly people over 60 years old who ‎referred to Ahvaz Health Care Centers, by stratified random sampling method. In this ‎research, data collection tool was a three-part questionnaire. The relationship between ‎the studied variables in the form of a hypothetical path model was investigated. Path ‎analysis test by the aid of Lisrel software version 8.8 was used to confirm the fitness of ‎model.‎ Findings: About one-third of the elderly people (33%) did not have active social ‎participation. Also, the elderly people were in a moderate condition in terms of overall ‎quality of life (61.86 ± 7.82); also, in terms of independence (67.36 ± 9.40), in terms of ‎health (64.77 ± 9.25) and in terms of leisure time activities (63.94 ± 8.73) they were in ‎a relatively favorable condition. The results of path analysis showed that the ratio of ‎explaining the attitude toward performing active social participation was equal to 0.97 ‎and the ratio of explaining the active social participation behavior performing was ‎equal to 0.46, and also the ratio of explaining active social participation on the quality ‎of life was equal to 0.90. Finally, the variables of final model could explain 81% of the ‎quality of life variance in the elderly people.‎ Discussion and Conclusion: Social participation has an explaining role in promoting ‎the life quality of elderly people. Hence, it is necessary to compile a comprehensive ‎program to increase the social participation of elderly people according to the present ‎realities and with a look towards the future in order to have active elderly people with a ‎desirable quality of life in the coming years‎.