Investigating Stress, Anxiety and Depression and Its Relationship with Social Support in Military Elderly

With the rapid increase in the number of elderly people, the need to pay attention to their mental health has become more and more important. Social support plays an effective role in promoting the mental health of the elderly by providing emotional and psychological support. This study was conducted to investigate stress, anxiety and depression and its relationship with social support in the military elderly.

This is a descriptive-analytical study that was performed on 280 military elderly people referred to health care using the available sampling method. Depression, anxiety and stress were assessed using the DASS-21 questionnaire and social support was assessed using Phillips social support questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS-20 software using Chi-square, Fisher and linear regression tests.

The results showed that 49.2% of the military elderly had depression, 42.9% had anxiety and 31.8% had stress. Depression, anxiety and stress showed a statistically significant relationship with education, marital status, chronic illness and economic status (P<0.05). Also, the most predictive areas of mental health were family support (B = 0.38) and friends support (B = 0.34) and the lowest were related to the support of others (B = 0.25), respectively, and all areas of social support were mental health. Was predictive and statistically significant (P<0.05).

According to the results of the present study, it can be said that in the military elderly, there is more depression and anxiety than stress. Family and friend support can play a crucial role in the mental health of the elderly. Therefore, paying attention to mental health status and using determining factors such as social support can be effective in reducing mental health injuries.