Health Index, Social Capital and ParticipatoryActions of Elderly People in Ahwaz City/Iran

The social capital and its variables such as participatory actions and volunteering behaviors could be important in health index and   for elderly ethology.  Using questionnaire based on Stone Model (2002) the research on participatory actions was conducted among elder population of Ahwaz city (in the southwest of Iran) on 2015. With the random and classified sampling 194 elder people from the community has been selected in two groups of experimental (with participatory actions) and witness (without participatory actions). The results have been shown that, there is a significant relationship between Volunteering actions of elderly and two conceptual domains of Social Capital: structure of relationships (networks) and circumstances of relationships as main manner of participation among experimental group. These relations are too effective on other secondary variables such as age, gender, separation of children and chronic diseases. Social distrust to institutions, reduction of social participation and loss of components of social capital was associated with the reduction in healthy behavior index and social awareness. In total, investment in making and reinforcing of promising social capital for the elderly is effective in their attitude toward an effective end for their personal social life and getting more self-esteem and desirable feedback.