THE HEALTH AND SOCIAL STATUS OF THE ELDERLY: A MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS

Abstract

The rationale of the study is to determine the relationship between the health and social status of the elderly and the related factors. This study is cross-sectional. The data of the study were obtained from the n=1025 nursing care plan form of elderly who applied to the primary health care institutions in the city center of Yozgat in 2016-2017. The data were analyzed by Chi-Square test, binary, and multinominal logistic regression. Of the elderly who participated in the study, 47.8% were women, 72.3% were married, and 41.7% were in the 65-69 age group. 33.6% of the elderly are obese, 82.2% have a diagnosed health problem, the most common (53.5%) is hypertension, 80.3% use drugs, 40.4% use at least three drugs. They were stated that 39.3% of them fell after the age of 65. In the last 30 days, the elderly mostly experienced anxiety (22.9%), and anger was second (17.6%). It has been observed that the elderly mostly (74.5%) tend to worship in case of stress and distress, mostly (40.1%) go to neighbors in their spare time and 79.8% of them have good neighborly relations. The elderly who are women, not exercised, non-pursuit, and have high body mass index (BMI) are at higher risk of having at least two health problems. It has been determined that a great majority of the elderly have health problems, 2/5 of them took at least three drugs and fell after the age of 65. As a result, women, those who live sedentarily, and those with high BMI are at high risk for health.