Elderly Health Journal
Volume:2 Issue: 1, Jun 2016

This study carried out to investigate the causes and motivations of older people residing in nursing home.
A qualitative description study was designed by choosing a sample of the elderly residing in a nursing home in Tabriz, Iran. Based on purposive sampling, fifteen residents in the age range of 65-85 participated in the study. Data was collected through unstructured interviews/focus group discussions and then analyzed using content analysis.
Generally, two main concepts were obtained from the data as follow: non-compulsory entry and compulsory entry. Moving with prior approval, financial and family problems were considered as the subcategories of non-compulsory entry, while lack of consciousness and deception were dominated as sub-categorise of compulsory entering.
We face a growing demand for community-based long-term care alternative to nursing homes as the elderly population is becoming elder. Frail older people who participated in the research were more likely to delay or prevent their entry into nursing homes.

Food habits play important roles in maintaining physical and mental health and preventing chronic illnesses in the elderly. The aim of the present study was to investigate dietary behaviors of elderly people residing in Yazd city which is located in central Iran.
The present analysis was conducted on 1684 participants entered to Yazd Health Study (YAHS) aged over 60 years during 2014-2015. Demographic characteristics, health status, physical activity, economic status, education and dietary behaviors were collected by using a validated questionnaire.
Our analysis revealed that only 1.2% of the elderly consumed more than two servings of dairy per day. Furthermore only 3 and 9.8 percent of elders consumed more than three servings/day of vegetables and fruits, respectively. The study also showed that 22.9% ate more than five servings of sugar per day, 22.5% took more than four units of legumes weekly, 56.1% ate two to three servings of poultry per week, 77% reported eating fast foods for at least once a week, 47.8% consumed canned foods less than once a week of and 86.3% reported taking breakfast for at least five times a week. For cooking 18.9% of elderly still use hydrogenated vegetable oils, 52.8% of the elderly did not separate visible fats from red meat before cooking, 65.8% chose high-fat dairy and 24% of older people reported using frying and grilling as their primary cooking method. Our findings also suggest that dietary behavior is different between elder men and women.
Unhealthy dietary habits, including low vegetables, fruits and dairy products intake, are highly prevalent among elderly people residing in Yazd. Community based interventions targeting this age group, in order to improve their dietary intake, are highly recommended.

The diseases and problems due to ageing can affect the quality of life (QoL) in the elderly. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of self-care program education run by health volunteers and healthcare staff on the QoL in the elderly.
In this experimental, field trial study, 150 elderly people living in Mashhad were enrolled by multistage sampling in 2014. The participants were randomly assigned to three groups of 50 individuals in each; group A was educated by healthcare staff at healthcare centers, group B by health volunteers at the elderly's homes, and group C was control. The intervention groups (A and B) attended two independent self-care education programs for one month. The data were gathered by the SF-36 questionnaire administered before and one month after the completion of the program. Data analysis was done by descriptive statistics [mean (standard deviation)] and analytical statistics (independent samples t-test and Kruskal-Wallis H-test).
QoL score of the groups A, B, and C was derived 45.44±23.87, 45.36±23.81, and 45.38±23.83 before the intervention and 48.79±22.09, 63.15±19.03, and 46.08±22.67 after the intervention, respectively. The QoL score of the group B was significantly higher than the other two groups (P Self-care education by the health volunteers was much more effective than that by healthcare staff. In addition, implementing the self-care education program contributed to improving QoL and therefore life satisfaction in the elderly.

Elder abuse may increase the vulnerability of ageing people to disease and decrease their general health status, so addressing the issue is essential for promoting elderly quality of life. The study aimed to examine the relation between abuse experience and general health among elderly people in Yazd city- Iran.
The cross-sectional study carried out on 250 community-dwelling seniors in the city of Yazd who were selected with cluster random sampling. Data collection tools included, Iranian Domestic Elder Abuse Questionnaire and Persian version of the General Health Questionnaire 28. Data were analyzed using Spearman correlation coefficient and linear regression tests.
Mean scores of abuse experience and general health among the elders were 11.84±12.70 (range 0-100) and 21.82±10.84 (range 0-84) respectively. General health status was more undesirable among elders who had experienced abuse than those who had not. Elder abuse subscales accounted for 17.2 % changes in general health, which had only care neglect and physical abuse subscales with significant prediction effect.
Abuse experience has negative effects on older adult's general health. care neglect and physical abuse play a more important role.

Women are facing inequalities including health, thus their health deserves attention. Investigating people’s health status from their viewpoints is an important measure in terms of public health of society and an indicator to determine the efficiency of health system. This study aimed at evaluating the self-assessed health of older women living in Shiraz and Yasuj.
This was a cross-sectional study on elderly females over 65 years living in Shiraz and Yasuj. A questionnaire was applied to collect data from 380 subjects who were selected by cluster random sampling method. Data analysis was performed through SPSS software in two levels of descriptive and inferential.
The mean score of total self-assessed health was 72.02±13.6, and 63.8% evaluated their health status as moderate. The mean scores for physical health, anxiety, social function, and depression subscales were 14.52± 4.97, 18.02±5.77, 18.29±4.48, 21.11 ±4.27, respectively. Age, education, marital status, disease history, and self-esteem were significantly associated with self-assessed health. R2 determination coefficient also indicates that 31.8% of changes in self-assessed health scores are explained by self-esteem, disease history, education, and marital status.
Infrastructure to maintain the traditional values in the field of social relations and strengthen the family ties between the elderly and their family members can increase their self-esteem by reducing social isolation, and help them improve their health, especially in psychological dimension.

Ageing brings different experiences for individuals. Any individual learn about ageing from childhood whatever formal or informal. No matter they learn, what and how they learn is important. This study aimed to assess impact of an educational program on ageism in those people lower 20 years of age.
This interventional study was conducted among school and university students of Babol city, Mazandaran province, Iran. Study was carried out in two stages. First 373 participants (187 school students and 186 university undergraduate students under age of 20) who recruited form Babol department of education and Babol University of Medical Sciences went under study of assessing attitudes toward ageing. In the second stage, courses on lifespan human development were delivered in 10 workshops for 151 people. Sampling method was stratified randomly from different age groups. Workshops consisted of lecturing, discussion, watching movie, reading pamphlets and having conversations with experienced older adults. Data was gathered by a questionnaire consisting of demographic characteristics and The Fraboni Scale of Ageism.
The mean of ageism score among school and university students were 49.93 ± 9.25 and 46.96 ± 7.64 respectively. There was statistically significant difference between two groups in ageism scores (p = 0.001) so that ageism was higher among school students However after implementation of education program, ageism score reduced for all 151 students from 46.92 ± 7.82 to 45.85 ± 7.79 which was statistically significant (p = 0.001).
Educational program to reduce ageism is beneficial and could reduce the level of ageism. Suggestions for educators to combat ageism are provided.

Geriatric syndromes lead to a number of disabilities which dramatically affect the quality of life in ageing. Facilitating the process of self-care can improve the elder's health to a great extent which has received less attention in previous studies. This study aimed at investigating the relationship between the disability and self-care in the elderly of Yazd.
This cross-sectional study was conducted in Yazd; 234 elderly participants were selected through cluster random sampling. WHODAS-II questionnaire and a researcher-designed self-care questionnaire were utilized and collected data analyzed using Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis H, chi-square and Spearman correlation coefficient tests.
The mean score of disability was 38.55 ±13.71 (ranging from 0 to 92) and the mean score of self-care was 61.57± 15.94 (ranging from 0 to 118). There was no statistically significant correlation between total score of disability and self-care, however, correlation was detected between the subscales.
Given the high level of disability in a majority of elders and low level of their self-care, self-care promotion programs and prevention of disabilities in collaboration with their families and health centers are recommended.

Most of the older adults have to be hospitalized and patients’ satisfaction from the provided services is one of the key performance indicators in healthcare centers. Feeling satisfied with the treatment process and provided services can motivate the elderly patients to continue their treatment, which ultimately leads to a reduction in the disease load and disability in older adults. The aim of this study was to examine the satisfaction status of elderly patients admitted in different wards in Yazd Shahid Sadoughi Hospital of provided services in winter 2015.
This was a cross-sectional study in which, the elderly patients who were hospitalized in different wards of Yazd Shahid Sadoughi Hospital were investigated. Totally, 100 patients entered in the study through convenience sampling during the winter 2015. A modified Persian version of Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire III was applied for data collection. To analyze the data, In addition to descriptive statistics, in inferential section student-t and Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients were applied.
The mean score of total satisfaction from hospital services of Yazd Shahid Sadoughi Hospital was 65.4 (range 0-100). There was a significant positive relation between the different domains of satisfactions. It was only the financial aspects which was not in relation with other domains. The highest score of the patient satisfaction belonged to the technical quality (73.7) and nursing services (69.6) and the lowest score was in the communication domain (48.7). The score of satisfaction in financial aspects was lower in men than women (P Most of the elderly patients had little satisfaction with the communication. Medical students and staff should consider good communication while delivering services to the elderly, and provide adequate information to help them decide which treatment pathway is suitable.