The Relationship between Life Satisfaction with Social Support and Self-efficacy in Community-dwelling Elderly in Sari, Iran, 2012

Background and Population aging and advancing longevity is one of the achievements of the present century. Life satisfaction is considered as a typical sign of a successful adaptation to changes in various life situations. It seems that self-efficacy and social support may be associated with life satisfaction. There are limited publications in this field, so this study was done to investigate the relationship between life satisfactions, self-efficacy and social support in community-dwelling elderly in Sari, north of Iran. In this descriptive-analytic study 129 elderly who agreed to participate were randomly selected from 10 health centers in Sari. The samples who aged more than 60 years of old were included and exclusion criteria were having incurables disease such as cancer, dementia, and severe psychological diseases. The data was collected using demographic questionnaires, Ed Diener life satisfaction, social support and self-efficacy questionnaires. To analyze the data SPSS V. 16 was applied. The mean age of the elderly and life satisfaction were 67.86 ± 7.49 and 20.64 ± 8.36, respectively. We observed a significant correlation between life satisfaction and demographic variables such as economic status (P=0.002) and home status (P=0.01). Total average of social support and self-efficacy were 25.08 ± 5.98, 24.35 ± 7.55, respectively. This study found a significant association between life satisfaction with social support (r=0.44, P=0.001) and self-efficacy (r=0.49, P=0.001). According to the results of this study, there is a direct relationship between life satisfaction, social support, and self-efficacy. Life satisfaction in elderly can be increased by strengthening the support, independence and dignity of older people, thereby improving their social support and self-efficacy conditions.