Assessing interpersonal communication skills of elderly in Gonabad city

Introduction and There is an urgent need to identify challenges faced by older adults due to increasing elderly population. One of these challenges is impaired interpersonal communication skills. Therefore, this study aimed to assess interpersonal communication skills of elderly. This descriptive-analytical study employed convincing sampling method to collect 150 elderly from Gonabad city. Data were collected using the Interpersonal Communication Skills Questionnaire. SPSS version 18 were used to analyze data by T-Test, Pearson correlation and ANOVA. The results of this study showed that 73.3 % of participants are men and mean score of communication skills was 114.5 (SD= 9.93). Our findings indicated that total score of communication skills was significantly and positively associated with sub-dimensions of communication skills, sex and living conditions. However, an inverse significant association was reported between communication skills and age. Participants in the presents study showed a good level of communication skills in all domains. Promoting communication skills is of critical importance at old age. Hence, it is recommended to organize educational courses for improving elderly’s communication skills.