Analyzing Life Quality of Retired Elderly in Tehran (Focusing on formal and informal social support)

Old age is one of the most delicate and important periods in human life. Since this group is among the sensitive, paying attention to the issues of this period such as life quality and social support is of great importance. Therefore, to improve the quality of life, they must get various informal support from their network members or formal support from social security service. Not only is the present study going to determine the status of the elderly life quality but also to investigate the role of (formal and informal) social support in this area. Here informal social support is investigated in two dimensions of functional and structural referring to social network theories such as Leen, Welmer and Granuter; Furthermore formal social support is studied by social welfare and support. Also, life quality is examined from objective and subjective point of view due to theories of France and Zan.Statistical population of the survey is 60 or older pensioners of Civil Servants Persian Fund and Social Security Organization who live in Tehran. Using multi-staged and random cluster sampling, 384 of them are selected by Kukran formula as a sample society.The results show that there is direct and significant relation between various social support (formal and informal), and life quality. Considering coefficients indicates high social coefficients of formal and informal social support and subjective aspect of life. Coefficient relationships between functional aspects of informal support and subjective aspect of life quality among the mentioned elderly are stronger than other relationships. In the regression multi-factor analysis, adequacy of formal supports has higher rates and informal supports in the functional aspect (instrumental) and structural links (individual and group links) are in the subsequent ranks.