Assessing the status of mental health indices in Iranian eldery people

Given the increasing number of elderly people in the world and in Iran, and the need to pay attention to their health (physical and mental), it is important to be aware of the status of health indices and factors among these people. The main issue was to investigate the status of mental health indices in Iranian elderly people in order to provide a scientific and practical approach to improve quality of life.

The aim of this research was to assess the status of mental health indices in Iranian elderly people.

This study was descriptive and was conducted using field study. 150 elderly people were selected in the city of Shiraz by multi-stage cluster sampling and were assessed by the elderly mental health indices questionnaire. The data were analyzed by one way analysis of variance.

  The results showed that for the elderly people, family, religious, psychological, physical, social and economic dimensions were the most important dimensions with mean score (out of 5) of 4.27, 4.05, 3.84, 3.56, 38. 3 and 24.2, respectively. Also, the most important indices of mental health were "having a proper parenting pattern", "mutual understanding with the spouse", "loving relationship with the spouse", "training the children effectively", and "believing in God". Comparison of the status of indices showed that the elderly men had better status in family (t = 2.25, p= 0.002), social (t= 3.18, p= 0.002), and psychological dimensions (t=2.28, p = 0.002) than the elderly women. Women also had better status in religious (t= -2.35, p= 0.002), economic (t= 2.14, p = 0.002) and physical (t=-2.45- p= 0.002) dimensions.

  The results showed that parental relationships, effective marital relationship, successful parenting and religious affairs are the most important factors affecting the quality of life of the elderly people.