The Role of psychological and social health on sexual health of elderly women

With the increase of the elderly, the issue of their health and well-being in the society is becoming more widespread every day. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of mental and social health in sexual health of elderly women.

This research has been an applied type that was done by descriptive- correlational method. The statistical population of the study was the elderly women of Tehran, out of which 220 elderly women were selected by multistage cluster sampling. Data were obtained through Short Form Symptom Checklist-25-Revised (Najarian & Davoodi,1380), Keyes Social Health (Keyes,2004) and Women's Sexual Function Index (Rosen, 2000). Data were analyzed using Statistical methods of correlation and regression analysis.

The results showed that there is a significant relationship between mental and social health with sexual health of elderly women (p <0.01).The mental health components (somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, phibic, paranoid thinking, psychoticism and aggression) inversely and significantly, and the social health components (social actualization, social coherence, social integration, social acceptance and social contribution) directly and significantly are related to the sexual health of elderly women.

The results of regression analysis also showed that mental and social health are predictors of sexual health in elderly women, which mental health is a stronger predictor than social health.Based on this, it can be concluded that women's sexual function is a multidimensional process and it seems that factors such as psychological components like anxiety and depression and social components like social acceptance can affect women's sexual health.