Evaluating the physical, psychological and social problems and their relation to demographic factors among the elderly in Zahedan city during 2010-2012

The number of elderly people is increasing in different societies, including Iran. Considering that the prevalence of physical, mental and social problems increases with age and care for elderly impose a heavy economic burden on the community, this study aimed to evaluate the physical, psychological and social problems and their relation to demographic factors among the elderly people in Zahedan. This cross-sectional study was performed on 315 elderly people (173 men and 142 women) in Zahedan, Iran, during 2010-2012. Subjects were randomly selected from all urban elderly people. Data were collected through a questionnaire and then analyzed using the SPSS software. Results showed that 54.9% of the participants were male, 42.9% illiterate, 1.6% single and 61.3% with physical problems. The most common physical problems were related to cardiovascular diseases (43.8%). Moreover, 89.5% of the subjects felt emotionally relaxed and 36.9% were not satisfied with their lives. It seems that the elderly people, especially elderly women, have many physical, mental and social problems, so these problems affect their quality of life and to remove or reduce the problems, cooperation of elderly, family and society is necessary.