Investigating the relationship between socio-economic status and health of older adults Case study: Azarshahr

The growing population of older adults mandates attending to their health and socioeconomic factors that affect it. Furthermore, it is potentially important to study the underlying factors that affect life status in this period.
The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between socioeconomic status and health in older adults of Azarshahr.
The current cross-sectional descriptive study recruited 312 older adults of 65 years and older from Azarshahr city using stratified random sampling method. Goldberg General Health Questionnaire was used to evaluate the mental health of older adults. Furthermore, General Health Questionnaire and another questionnaire were used to assess physical ability to perform activities of daily living and Keynesian Social Health Questionnaire was used to measure social health. Data were analyzed in SPSS22 using descriptive and analytical tests including independent t test and one-way analysis of variance.
A significant relationship was found between education and health (physical, social and psychological) of respondents (p = 0.026), which means that people with higher education enjoyed a better health than those with lower education levels. Furthermore, a significant relationship was found between mean health and family living expenses (p = 0.000), such that people who declared their living expenses to be higher than 2000000 rials were healthier than others. A significant difference also existed among different jobs in terms of health status (p = 0.000), which means that older people with middle class jobs were healthier than others.
Older people with high socioeconomic status enjoy higher physical, psychological and social health than other older people. In fact, older adults’ health status and health problems are major concerns in most societies and require careful and right policies and planning.