Correlates and barriers of social participation in elderly living in Mazandaran, Iran

Objective (s):

Due to the rapid growth of the country's elderly population, the need to pay attention to social participation as one of the determinants of health and modifiable in the process of active aging is very important. Thus, the aim of study was to determine the level of social participation, barriers, and related factors in the elderly people of Mazandaran province, Iran.

In this descriptive-study, 421 elderly people over 60 years old in Mazandaran province were selected by stratified and cluster random sampling. The data collection tools were a demographic characteristics questionnaire, a researcher-made questionnaire of social participation, and the Social Participation Barriers. Data were analyzed by SPSS v24 using independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and linear regression at a significant level of P<0.05.

The mean age of the samples was 72.55 (8.81) years, and the mean score of social participation was 22.87)11.81(. The highest level of participation was related to the cultural-religious dimension 8.43)4.46) and the lowest level was related to the political activity dimension 3.76(2.44).  Being out of reach (86.7%), lack of physical accessibility of activity and facilities (83.6%), impatience (83.1%), costs and financial problems (82.7%), and diseases and health problems (80%) were respectively the most important barriers to social participation. The male elderly with low age, employed, and college-educated had significantly better scores of social participation (P<0.05). According to the regression analysis, 59% of the variance of social participation was explained by age, education, and gender.

The social participation level of the elderly in Mazandaran was low. Therefore, the need for policy-making and the design of comprehensive programs, and developing a proper environment to reduce barriers, seems important to improve social participation in elderly.