Study of social isolation and related factors in the elderly of gonabad city in 2022

One of the important issues of aging is social isolation, which has adverse effects on the quality of life of the elderly, so the present study was designed with the aim of the Social isolation and related factors in the elderly of Gonabad city in 2022.

The current cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 403 elderly people who met the inclusion criteria. The data collection tool was a three-part questionnaire including a demographic information questionnaire, Activities of Daily Living and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living, and a Luben social isolation questionnaire. The samples were randomly selected. Data collection was done in person from community health centers in Gonabad city. The data were analyzed with the SPSS v.22 using descriptive and inferential statistics with a significance level of less than 0.05.

The average age of the participants in this study was 70.54 years, 50.4% of the participants were male and 77.4% of them were married. 59.3% of the elderly participants had social isolation. Also, there was a significant relationship between the variables of gender, occupation, education, substance abuse, history of chronic disease, vision problems, and place of residence with social isolation.

Considering the significant prevalence of social isolation among the elderly and the negative effects of social isolation on various dimensions of health and quality of life, it is necessary to carry out preventive interventions with the aim of reducing the amount of social isolation.