Causal Model of the Anticipation of Quality of Life Based on Activity of Daily Living and Social Capital in the Elderly: The Mediating Role of Self-Care

According to population aging phenomenon all around the world, taking care of the older population is an important mission of the community health system to maintain their quality of life. Thus, it seems important that the experience of a long life is accompanied by desirable quality of life. Therefore, this study aimed to provide a quality of life model based on activity of daily living and social capital with the mediating role of self-care in the elderly. The population of the study included all the elderly aged over 60 living in Tehran in 2020, among whom 243 were selected through convenience sampling. Data were collected using the World Health Organization Short-Form Quality of Life (World Health Organization), Self-Care (Soderhamn), Social capital (Onyx and Bullen) and Activity of daily living (Mahoney and Barthel) questionnaires. Path analysis was used to analyze the causal model in AMOS-24. The results demonstrated that activity of daily living (β=0.547, p>0.01), social capital (β=0.178, p>0.01) and selfe-care (β=0.420, p>0.01) can predict quality of life in the elderly. Moreover, the mediating role of self-care in the relationship between activity of daily living and social capital with quality of life in the elderly was confirmed. According to the results of the present study, it can be said that the promotion of self-care through the health-related training programmes, appears to be an effective step in order to improve the quality of life in the elderly.