Analysis of the effect of social factors on mental health of rural elderlies

"Respect the elderly to be my companion in the resurrection." Prophet Muhammad PBUH

Currently one of the main problems of elderly people is related to their mental health. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effective social factors on mental health of elderly people in villages. In this study, the related resources, including researches and theories were studies in three groups: psychological, sociological, and ageing. Theoretical framework is a combination of theories of social production of mental illness, social aging studies, theories related to social support, and Kevin Kukryn theory and activity theory and hypotheses have been formulated based on this framework. The statistical society of this study includes all sixty years old and older people of Dasht rural district from Meshkinshahr city. The 284 subjects of the study were selected through multistage cluster sampling. We have carried out a survey and the needed information for testing hypotheses was collected via questionnaire. From mental health point of view, from 375 people who participated in the study, 62/4 percent are in the healthy group and 37/ 6 are in the unhealthy group. In this study all research hypotheses were confirmed and the relation between mental health of the elderly and variables of family support, social-economical basis, marital status, presence of children at home and everyday activities at home was confirmed. Based on the regression analysis, the martial status is the strongest variable that can predict the mental health and variables of daily activities and presence of children at home are the next variables in determining the variance of mental health.