INVESTIGATING THE ELDERLY SELF-PERCEIVED HEALTH AND ITS RELATED FACTORS-AZARSHAHR CITY

Old age or the elderly as the last period of life has always attracted the attention of scholars in the humanities and biology as well. The main purpose is to identify factors affecting their self-perceived health in Azarshahr city. Descriptive cross-sectional study involving 312 patients aged 65 years or more, was done, using stratified random sampling. One-dimensional tables and independent T test and ANOVA were used to describe and analysis of the data by SPSS software. The findings show that: 1) Approximately 27 percent of the respondent’s health status evaluated as poor, 34% moderate and 39% were assessed as good and very good. Men more than women (p = 0.003) seniors, who have moderate social support, more than other elderly people have their health as good. (p = 0.004) Between the assessment of health status and marital status (p = 0.298), age (p = 0.076) and length of stay of elderly (p = 0.618), there was no significant difference. 2) About 48 percent of the respondents evaluated their health as peers, about 32 percent better than peers and about 16 percent better than the peer. Men more than women evaluated their health compared to peers well and have better peer assessment (p = 0.007). In the assessment of health among the elderly compared to peers and marital status (p = 0.786), age (p = 0.056), social support (p = 0.076) and length of stay in the city (p = 0.723) we observed no significant difference.