Social support among the elderly in Iran

Abstract

Aim: One of the factors affecting the life of elderly people is the extent of social support they receive from people around them. The present study was designed to determine social support among the elderly in Shiraz city, Iran, in 2015. Methods: This was a cross-sectional analytical study with a sample size of 143. To collect the data, the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ) was used. Linear regression was used to analyze the data, and SPSS version 19 was applied for analysis. Results: Among 143 elderly participants, 43 were male (30.1%) and 100 were female (69.9%). Multivariate analysis indicated that among the factors studied, age, education and previous job (self-employed and housewife) were significantly related to both social networks and social satisfaction (p <0.00). Discussion: This study aimed to investigate the demographic factors associated with social support for the self-referred elderly residents of two care centers in Shiraz. After controlling for the possible impact of confounding variables, the study showed that age, education and previous job were significantly associated with both social network and satisfaction. Conclusions: Among the factors studied, age, occupation and education of the elderly people had the greatest roles in social support.