An Investigation on the Health Status of the Elderly and the Relationship with Self-Care and Social Support (The Elderly in Yasouj City)

The quantitative increase of the elderly and the ever-increasing consequences of aging have led to naming the first day of October every year as the International Day of the Elderly. The growth of the elderly population has many effects, and the health of the elderly in physical, mental, and social dimensions and the individual and social factors related to it are among the most important of these effects. In this regard, the present article has examined the relationship between the elderly's general health and the variables of self-care and social support in Yasouj city. The used method and the instrument to collect data are quantitative- survey and questionnaire respectively. The sample size is 259 individuals and the stratified random sampling proportional to the volume has been selected as the sampling method. Based on the results of the research, the average perceived health of the elderly in the dimensions of physical, mental and social health is higher than the average. The variables of Caring behavior and formal support are the most influential variables in the physical health dimension; the variables of informal support, formal support, caring behavior, women and the level of relationship with relatives are the most effective variables in the mental health dimension. The variables of informal support, caring behavior, formal support and the level of social relationship with relatives are the most influential variables in the dimension of social health of the elderly. Therefore, attention and differentiation of multiple dimensions of health and related variables are essential for doing scientific researches and social policy- makings.