@2024 Afarand., IRAN

---

ISSN: 2383-2150    Journal of Education and Community Health 2015;2(1):29-37

Background
… [1-3].The elderly are vulnerable groups of society and they need variety of supports to gain better living quality. This stage of life is a natural phenomenon that body physiologic and natural changes affect the quality of living [4].
Previous Studies
… [5]. Life quality is an intellectual and conceptual judgment of a person's life condition or his satisfaction of life [6] or it is a multi dimensional concept that encompasses physical, mental and social health [7].… [8-15]. Several studies has shown that there is a connection between social support and life quality. Such as Rambod study in hemodialysis patients [16], the study of Cheng et al. [17] in patients with breast cancer and Burgoyne study in patients with HIV [18]. … [19-20].
Aim(s)
This study aimed to determine relationship between different dimensions of social support and life quality of elderly in 8th district of Tehran, Iran.
Research type
The current research is a sectional descriptive-analytic study.
Research society, place and time
In the spring of 2013, this study was done on a sample of elderly aged 60 years or above, living in the 8th district of Tehran in 13 alleys and 104 blocks.
Sampling method and number
This study was done by cluster sampling method. For this propose, each alley divided into blocks which specified by municipality map. The researchers referred to public places (mosques, parks, fitness centers and shopping centers) and residential place of each block in systematic method and due to block density, the researchers selected one to three elderlies and entered the study. Due to 8 percent population of elderly in this district and considering 95 percent confidence level and 5 percent error rate and using of clustering coefficient, the sample size estimated 240 people.
Used devices&materials
Data collection tool included a written questionnaire that collected by three educated questioner interviewing elderly who participated in this study. The questionnaires were consisted of 3parts: demographic information (age, gender, education, marital status, etc.), Norbeck social support questionnaire and life quality for the elderly. Lipad's life quality questionnaire: this questionnaire was prepared by De Leo et al. and it has known as an international tool, used for all kinds of elderly groups in different communities [21].This questionnaire has been translated in Iran and its reliability and validity has been confirmed [22]. Lipad's questionnaire has 31 questions that studies life quality of elder in 7 dimensions of physical function( 5 questions), self-care(6 questions), anxiety and depression (4 questions), mental function(5 questions), Social function (3 question), Sexual function(2 questions) and life satisfaction (6 question). Question is scoring with Likert's scale in this questionnaire. Thus, each question had four answers and these answer's point start from zero (weak) to three (Excellent) and the highest point in the questionnaire is 93. Nor Beck Social Support Questionnaire: this questionnaire is a tool that calculates social, functional structural, emotional supports and total lack of elderly. Beside these resources, this questionnaire discovers descriptive data related to support connections that a person has lost it recently [23]. This questionnaire has 9 question that each question was for 24 people and response of every person which exist in his social career will be scored from 0 to 4 (0= never and 4 = very much). Minimum score for each question is zero and maximum 96 and eventually the 8 starting questions extract measure of structural support, functional support and emotional support and 9th question is related to the total lack [24]. Scale of Nor Beck social support questionnaire is more preferred because of its wide range of meaning (simple to complex) and proper measurement method compare to other social support's measurement tools. The reliability and validity of this tool in Iran were investigated by Jalilian et al. and it is recommended as a perfect tool to measure social support in elderly [25]. Statistical analysis Data was entered into computer to be analyzed by SPSS software (version 20, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). According to study's assumption and considering the unusual distribution of variables, Mann–Whitney, Kruskal–Wallisand Spearman's correlation were used. Significant level for all tests was considered as lower than 0.05.
Findings by Text
Of 240 elderly individuals who participated in this study, 127 (52.9 percent) were male and 113 (47.1) were female. Almost half of elderly (50.4 percent) were in-group age of 60-65 and the mean age of men was 71.02±8.64 and it was 64.73±5.27 for women that this difference was statistically significant (P<0.001). The mean income of elderly each month was 4500000 (±4495436) Rials. Other demographic data of participants in study has shown in table 1. Comparison of life quality between elderly men and woman using Mann–Whitney statistical test. Table 2 showed that the mean score of physical and sexual performance in men were significantly higher than woman and, in contrast the mean score of social and life satisfaction performance in woman elderly were significantly higher than men (P<0.001). Also after reviewing relationship of social support dimensions with gender, it has showed that elderly men have significantly higher support compare to woman (P<0.001). Relationship between demographic variable and life quality component and social support of participants in this study has shown in table 3. According to data, result of Spearman's rank correlation test has shown that age has significant correlation with sexual function (P=0.003) and self-care (P=0.006). Results of Kruskal–Wallis test has shown that education level has significant relationship with life quality components, except depression and anxiety. In addition, there was a significant relationship between all components of social support and education. Also, marital status had statistically significant relationship with physical function (P<0.001), sexual function (P<0.001), self-care (P=0.005) and total score of life quality(P=0.034).Reviewing Spearman's correlation between life quality and social support component has shown that among life quality components such as physical function, mental function, social function, and life satisfaction has significant relationship with emotional support, structural support and functional support but there was not any statistical significant relationship between life satisfaction and structural support(P=0.124; Table 4).
Main comparison to the similar studies
… [26-29]. Results of Hampton study has shown that higher education level is accompanied with lower quality of life and education level does not have any significant relationship with life satisfaction [30]. The results of current study showed that with the increase of age in elderly, the sexual activity and self-care decrease. This data is consistent with similar studies [5, 9, 31-33]. However, in the study conducted by Ghasemi et al., no statistically significant relationship has been reported between life quality and age [34]. … [35-37].
Suggestions
In this context, further studies with larger sample size population similar to the population of this study in order to highlight the hidden aspects proposed in the future is suggested.
Limitations
Of limitations of this study, cross-sectional nature of the study, dependence of the response of the elderly to the time and place of interview and elderly's moral scenarios in the time of responding to questions can be mentioned.
Conclusions
The statistical significant relationship between some social support dimensions and some life quality components such as physical function, mental function, social function and life satisfaction show the effect of social support on the life quality. Also, the higher education level in people can affect their life quality especially in elderly period.
Acknowledgments
Special honor and appreciation to authorities of Health Research Organization and elderly who participated, respective mayor of district 8, Ms. .Maryam Dastorpour, Ms. Samira Vesali and other friends who cooperate in this study.
Conflict of interest
Non-declared
Ethical Permissions
The conditions of doing this project, confidentiality of information, and the purpose of doing project were explained to the participants of this research and all of them were entered in study consciously.
Funding Sources
This study is result of research conducted by the first and responsible authors under the code 15473-62-03-90 in the Tehran University of Medical Science that has been implemented with the support of Health Research Organization based on community involvement and institution of reducing high-risk behaviors.

TABLES and CHARTS

Show attach file