نشریه سالمندشناسی
سال هفتم شماره 1 (پیاپی 24، بهار 1401)

According to the growing population of elderly and emerging problems such as disappointment and depression, it is necessary to increase the mental health index by paying attention to the abilities and positive feelings of the elderly. Therefore, this research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of positive psychotherapy on depression, self-inventory, self-knowledge, and psychological characteristics of the elderly living in Isfahan.

This experimental research has been done in Isfahan in 2020. The participants included all the elderly aged above 60 years, living in Isfahan; 40 participants were selected purposefully based on inclusion criteria and were randomly divided into the experimental and control groups equally. Measurements consisted of scales of elderly depression, self-inventory, self-knowledge, and positive psychological characteristics. Questioners were completed before the intervention; then, positive psychotherapy was performed for the experimental group for six weeks, twice a week for two days among sessions for 11 sessions (each session was 90 minutes). Questioners have been completed immediately at the end of the sessions. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 23).

Findings of the research have demonstrated that positive psychotherapy has a significant role in the reduction of depression and improvement of self-inventory, self-knowledge, and positive psychological characteristics of the elderly (p<0.05).

It is concluded that positive psychotherapy can be used as an efficient method in order to decrease depression and improve self-inventory, self-knowledge, and positive psychological features in the elderly at counseling and psychotherapy centers.

The elderly are one of the growing social groups in today's societies that have become increasingly important due to the age pyramid of the country. Accurate knowledge based on objective and scientific observations, especially in the field of social and public health, influences decision-making and planning to improve the quality of life of this group. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the correlation between social health and general health with quality of life indicators of inactive elderly..

In this descriptive-correlational and cross-sectional study, 200 inactive elderly were selected from Lahijan nursing home. Keys Social Health Questionnaire, Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (GQH-28) and Quality of Life Questionnaire (SF-36) were used to collect data. Data were analyzed by SPSS and Amos software using one-sample t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient and regression.

The results showed that the mean age of the elderly in the study was 64.9. 6.2 years. The mean score of social health was 49.87 13 13.17 which was lower than the mean of social health, general health was 38.66 11 11.46 and quality of life score was 312.68 ± 107.37 and was between social health. There was a statistically significant relationship between general health and quality of life indicators (P˂0.001).

Physical activity can play a role in maintaining and ensuring general health, and physical activity and exercise are effective in promoting mental health, reducing depression, increasing well-being, mental and social health, self-confidence and self-discovery.

Health education as the first and most important component of primary health care is one of the serious duties of health center staff. This study aimed to assessment of barriers to elderly health education from health care providers opinions employed in the urban family physician plan of Babol city in 1399.
 

This study was a cross-sectional (descriptive-analytical) study in which 108 health care providers were selected by census method of sampling. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire. At the end of the quantitative questionnaire, two open-ended questions were considered for interviews with health care providers to examine their views from different perspectives. The obtained data from the quantitative questionnaire were analyzed using Statistical tests and P ‹ 0.05 was considered significant. Finally, the findings of the quantitative questionnaire and the interview were combined based on a combined explanatory model.

The quantitative study results of the present study showed that the most important barriers to elderly health education for health care providers was lack of time due to workload, which 49.1% of caregivers reported its impact was high. Among the demographic variables only the age factor had a significant relationship with elderly educational barriers (P=0/004). Also, the interview findings in this study showed that more health care providers expressed high working load (24.6%) and low salaries (21.5%) as the most educational barriers.

According to the results, it is suggested that the official authorities, by providing the necessary manpower in various departments and reducing working load and increasing the level of satisfaction of health care providers regarding the amount salaries, make to encourage health care providers to consider this important issue.

Diabetic elderly have many problems in the field of health and well-being and it seems that mindfulness based on acceptance and commitment and health promoting lifestyle methods have an effective role in improving them and comparing them can help to identify a more effective method. Therefore, the aim of this study was comparison the effectiveness of mindfulness based on acceptance and commitment and health promoting lifestyle on mental well-being and health hardiness in diabetic elderly.

Present research was semi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design with a control group. The research population was diabetic elderly member of the Ahwaz Diabetes Association in 2021 year. The research sample was estimated to be 60 people who according to the inclusion criteria were selected by available sampling method and randomly replaced in two experimental groups and one control group (20 people in each group). The first experimental group underwent 8 90-minute sessions of mindfulness based on acceptance and commitment education and the second experimental group underwent 8 90-minute sessions of health promoting lifestyle education and during this period the control group did not receive any education. Data were collected by the demographic information form, mental well-being scale and health hardiness inventory and were analyzed by methods of chi-square, multivariate analysis of covariance and bonferroni post hoc test in SPSS-17 software.

The results showed that the experimental and control groups did not significant difference in terms of education, age and duration of mastectomy (P>0.05). Also, both intervention methods, namely mindfulness based on acceptance and commitment and health promoting lifestyle in compared to the control group significantly increased mental well-being and health hardiness in diabetic elderly (P˂0.001), but between the two intervention methods there was no significant difference in any of the mentioned variables (P>0.05).

The results indicated the effectiveness of both intervention methods and the lack of significant differences between them in mental well-being and health hardiness in diabetic elderly. Therefore, health professionals and therapists can use both methods to improve health-related features, especially increased mental well-being and health hardiness in the diabetic elderly.

The emphasis of World Health Organization on importance of  social health, along with physical health, have turned social health into a common concern for social planners in all societies. Thus, present study attempts to study the effectiveness of psychological empowerment on social health of aging women in Tehran. 

This experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest design with control group. The statistical population included all women aged 60 to 70 years in Tehran in 2020-2021. Twenty-four people (12 in the control group and 12 in the experimental group) were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups by available sampling method. Using a pre-test and post-test pilot design with the control group, the aging first completed the Keyes social health questionnaire and then the experimental application of psychological empowerment was performed in 8 sessions on the experimental group and after the post-test sessions was presented for both groups. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data using SPSS v.19 software.

The results showed that psychological empowerment training program on social actualization (F=10.278 and P=0.005), Social integration (F= 19.303 and P=0.001), Social coherence (F=10.685 and P=0.005), social acceptance (F=11.422 and P=0.004) and social contribution (F= 9.649 and P=0.006) There was a significant difference between the two groups in the two stages of evaluation has done. This means that the psychological empowerment program promoted the social health of the aging.

Based on the results of this study, it can be said that psychological empowerment program is effective on the components of social health of older women and the knowledge of experts in the fields of counseling, aging, psychology and health of these trainings can be helpful.

 older adults show high levels of co-contraction in lower extremities’ muscles due to the deterioration of the neuromuscular and sensory motor systems. Increased co-contraction leads to disruption of daily motor activities, especially movements in which joint stability is critical; therefore, it is important to pay attention to training programs to strengthen muscles and increase intramuscular coordination in older adults. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of unstable resistance training with and without blood flow restriction on ankle muscles’ co-contraction of older adults.

 27 older adults (62 ± 1.5 years old) were assigned into three groups of unstable resistance training without blood flow restriction, unstable resistance training with blood flow restriction (72± 9 mm Hg) and control. The training program consisted of three to four sets of 15 repetitions of body weight squats for four weeks and three sessions per each week, which were gradually added to the program by 5% of each person's body weight. Pre- and post- intervention, the electromyography signals of Tibialis Anterior and soleus muscles were recorded during walking in order to determine the rates of agonist and antagonist activity and muscles’ co-contraction. For data analysis, repeated measures analysis of variance and analysis of covariance tests with Bonferroni post hoc test were used at 0.05 of level of significance.

 The results showed that in post-test, the activity of the Tibialis Anterior muscle of both training groups was significantly increased compared to pre-test. Also, statistically significant difference was found in co-contraction rates of both groups in post-test. The results of Bonferroni post hoc test showed a statistically significant difference in reduction of co-contraction rates between the resistance training group with blood flow restriction and the control group (P=0.015) and between resistance training group without blood flow restriction with the control group (P=0.005). But no statistically significant difference was found between the two training groups.

 Resistance training on unstable surface with and without blood flow restriction is associated with increased agonist muscle activity, which leads to a decrease in ankle muscles’ co-contraction in older adults.

One of the indicators that well reflects the status of the elderly is the quality of life index. The results of studies have shown that loneliness and social isolation among the elderly have severe negative effects on their mental and physical health. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between quality of life and social isolation of the elderly in Aran and Bidgol.

This research is a descriptive cross-sectional study. 327 elderly people aged 60 to 70 years old in Aran and Bidgol who were selected from the comprehensive urban health service centers according to the inclusion criteria. Data were collected using the SF-36 Quality of Life Questionnaire, with a validity of 0.58-0.95 and a reliability of 0.9-0.77, and the Persian version of the 6-item Lubben questionnaire. The data are analyzed using SPSS statistical statistics in both descriptive and analytical terms.

46.8% people are men and 94.2% are in the age range of 69 years and younger. The average age of the elderly was 7.64 years.There is a statistically significant correlation between role limitations due to physical health status and emotional problems, emotional health, social functioning and general health with all subscales of quality of life. (P<0.05)

The results showed that the quality of life of the elderly in Aran and Bidgol was relatively high and their social isolation was also reported was relatively low. This confirms that in Aran and Bidgol, where the family structure is still traditional and the focus of the families is maintained. The inverse correlation between quality of life and social isolation also warns us to reduce parental social isolation to improve the quality of life of the elderly.