Exploring the impact of loneliness on mental health among eldery in west health center of Tehran, Iran

One of the undesirable consequences of the aging process is the feeling of loneliness and decrease in general health. Nowadays aging people are one of the most problems of sustainable development in each country in the world. Therefore, current research was aimed to determine the impact of loneliness on elderly health in west health care center of Tehran.

This was descriptive- analytical research conducted cross- sectionally in 2020-2021. The research population was elderly people over 60 years old covered by west health center of Tehran. Determining the sample size was conducted by Krejcie and Morgan table to the number of 300. The list of elderly people extracted from Sib system, and selected by random table of numbers. The research tool were two questionnaires including GHQ-28 of Goldberg and loneliness feeling of elderly population (SELSA- S) that confirmed their validity and reliability. Descriptive results were reported by frequency, average, and also analytical results reported using by Pearson and variance analysis, and also linear regression.

Increased feeling of loneliness and poor mental health and social function were observed elderly people. Negative and significant feeling of loneliness and its components impacted on mental health among elderly people. There was no significant relationship between feeling of loneliness and gender.

Decreased feeling of loneliness among elderly people might lead to improved mental health among elderly people. Therefore, due to the increasing elderly population in Iran, it is so important to design interventions and trainingprograms in order to create supportive conditions forelderly people.