Social Determinants Of Happiness Of Elderly In Southwest of Tabriz

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigation of the social determinants of happiness of elderly in southwest of Tabriz. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 300 elderly people over 60 years old in the Pilehrudi Health care center in the Southwest of Tabriz were selected through convenience sampling. The method of data collection was a questionnaire the questionnaire consistsed of two parts, the first part demographic charachteristic about age, gender, marital status, literacy level, income level, employment status, etc. and the second part to measure happiness, which included the Oxford Happiness Inventory of 29 items. . The illiterate questionnaire was completed by interview. Results: In this study, 303 people were studied that who's mean age (standard deviation) was 64.82 (±4.5) years. The mean (SD) happiness score in the subjects of this study was 40.24 (±14.7). Among the studied variables, only the variables of number of children and level of education did not differ significantly with happiness score (P-value> 0.05); On the other hand, happiness scores were significantly higher in men than women (P-value = 0.016), married more than single, widowed and divorced (P-value = 0.005), in people with incomes between 2 to 4 million (P-value = 0.007) and more than 4 million (P-value <0.001), higher than below 2 million, in retired people more than unemployed(P-value = 0.002) and housewives (P-value = 0.006) respectively, in employed more than unemployed(P-value = 0.006) and housewives (P-value = 0.043). Also happiness score was higher in elderly people who had physical activity more than 150 minutes per week than other group (P-value <0.001) and in healthy people more than people with a history of chronic disease (P-value = 0.002). Among the variables the linear regression model, only the physical activity variable with adjustment over other variables, significantly (P-value=0.002)increased happiness score; On the other hand, there was no significant relationship with happiness score between other variables.