Factors and Barriers Affecting the Social Participation of Older People

Social participation is an important and modifiable dimension of healthy and successful aging. The current study aimed at determining the level of social participation as well as its related factors and barriers to the elderly people in Khorramabad, Iran.
The current cross sectional study was performed on 285 elderly people living in Khorramabad in 2015. The Canadian community health survey (CCHS) and the social participation questionnaire were used to collect data. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS software version 20 using independent t test, the Welch test, Pearson correlation, and linear regression. The level of significance for all the tests was set to P The mean age of the older people in the current study was 69.68 (± 6.39) years. The mean score of social participation for the study participants was 10.06 ± (5.50). Disease (81.3%), financial problems (72.5%), and lack of physical accessibility (55.9%) were respectively the main barriers to social participation. There was a significant relationship between age, gender, marital status, housing status, level of education, occupation, income, and social participation.
Despite willingness of the elderly people in the current study, their social participation was low. Officials are suggested to make policies and develop plans in order to remove the barriers and provide a platform to promote social participation among seniors.