sanaz dastmanesh

Influenza is one of the leading causes of death in the world, especially in the elderly. This study examined the knowledge, attitudes, and intention of rural elderly about influenza prevention behaviors.

In this cross-sectional study was performed on 140 rural older people who were selected by multi-stage random sampling in Fasa, Iran. A questionnaire was developed to inform about individuals’ knowledge, attitude, and practice on influenza prevention measures. Data were analyzed using frequency descriptive statistics and the Chi-square test by SPSS-21.

A total of 61 men (mean age of 69.32 ± 6.81) and 71 women (mean age of 69.04 ± 7.52) responded to the questionnaire. The mean score of knowledge in women (6.8 ± 2.1) was significantly higher than in men (5.8 ± 2.7). The mean score of knowledge in illiterate people (6.45 ± 2.43) compared to literate people (6.08 ± 2.58) showed no significant differences. In addition, the differences between the mean score of attitudes in both men (5.67 ± 5.67) and women (6.05 ± 29.59) were not significant. Likewise, there were no significant differences between the mean scores of attitudes in the literate (28.74 ± 5.74) and illiterate (29.87 ± 5.89) elderly. The mean scores of intention in men and women were 6.18 ± 1.76 and 6.13 ± 1.53, respectively, which was not significantly different. Finally, the mean scores of intention in literate (5.85 ± 2.14) and illiterate (6.25 ± 1.42) participants were not significantly different.

The knowledge, attitude, and intention of rural elderly about influenza prevention behaviors are not satisfactory, and large-scale educational interventions are required in this regard, especially in rural areas.

Increased proportion of the retired population and the occurrence of retirement syndrome may significantly affect the Quality of life (QoL) and the well-being of older people. Therefore, the present study was conducted to examine the effect of training intervention on retirement syndrome and QoL among retired older men in Safashahr, Iran, in 2019.

 Using a randomized block design, the quasi-experimental study was conducted on 140 retired men with retirement syndrome. The subjects’ average age was 61.24±1.36 years. The older people were selected by purposive sampling and then randomly assigned to an experimental group (n=70) and a control group (n=70). The intervention comprised five 90-minute sessions of the practical training course of exercises for over 45 days in the experimental group. The study outcomes, such as retirement syndrome and QoL, were measured before, immediately after, and two months after the intervention. The study data were analyzed using SPSS Statistics 25, independent sample t-tests, Chi-square tests, and repeated measure ANOVA. The significance level was set at 0.05.

Based on the average score of retirement syndrome (< 0.001) and its subscales, such as helplessness and failure (HF) (p< 0.001), feeling of old and idle (FOI) (<0.001), feeling of confusion and conflict (FCC) (p<0.001), and feeling of effort and a new direction (FED) (p=0.025); an average score of QoL (p<0.001) and all its subscales, including physical activities (p<0.001), physical health (p<0.001), emotional problems (p<0.001), vitality (p< 0.001), mental health (p<0.001), general health perceptions (<0.001), except for physical pain (0.347) and social performance (0.41), there is a significant difference between the two experimental and control groups, before and after the intervention.

The findings may provide valuable implications for the development of exercises among the elderly and further studies to evaluate the long-term effects of such interventions among the elderly.