فهرست مطالب shaghayegh daie

Loneliness is a serious issue among the elderly that considerably affects their health. Spiritual health might affect the level of loneliness in these individuals. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the relationship between spiritual health and loneliness.

This cross-sectional study was performed on 330 older adults who live in the western areas of the Golestan Province, Iran in 2019. The subjects were selected using stratified random sampling method with proportional to size. Data were collected by the short form of the Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults (SELSA-S) and the Spiritual Health Questionnaire (SHQ). Data analysis was performed in SPSS software (version 18) using Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Statistical significance level was set to 0.05.

The mean of spiritual health and loneliness were 96.57±4.10 and 21.25±9.05, respectively. There was no significant correlation between spiritual health and loneliness (P=0.72), but there was a significant difference between urban and rural residents in this regard (P=0.037 and P=0.003). In addition, there was a significant relationship between spiritual health and loneliness in general (r=-0.139 and P=0.02). There was an inverse correlation between spiritual health and loneliness among urban residents (r=-0.27 and P=0.001) but not among rural residents (r=-0.06 and P=0.41).

Based on the findings, there is an inverse correlation between spiritual health and loneliness among the elderly. This could be a useful finding for planners and activists in the field of geriatric mental health in development of educational counseling and support programs.

  Self-medication is a major global health problem. Regarding this issue, the elderly are one of the most vulnerable groups in the community. The aim of this study was to determine prevalence and pattern of self-medication among the elderly in Gorgan, Iran. This cross-sectional study was carried out on 550 elderly residents of Gorgan in winter of 2017. Data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of 14 questions on demographic variables and medication use. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS (version 18) using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and the chi-square test. The overall prevalence of self-medication was 76.2% among the elderly people. Self-medication was more frequent in women (82.2%), married elderly (78.2%), and those with low education level (81.3%). Moreover, the most common reasons of self-medication were common cold and cough (48%) and headache (38.9%). Analgesics (67.1%) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (58.5%) were the most frequently used drugs for self-medication. Main derivers of self-medication were previous experience with the medication (63.7%) and the high cost of doctor's visit (54.5%). In addition, the most important sources of information about self-medication were previous prescription notes (53.2%) and previous experience with the condition (31%). Furthermore, we found a significant correlation between self-medication and some demographic variables including gender, marital status and education level (P<0.05). We demonstrated that the prevalence of self-medication, especially with analgesics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, is high among the elderly people in Gorgan, Iran. This highlights the need for preventive measures, including training programs and restriction on access to certain medications in this area.