Journal of North Khorasan

Background & Objectives:  Life satisfaction among the elderly people can be affected due to different variables such as social participation. This study aimed to determine the relationship between social participation and life satisfaction among elderly in Kerman.

Materials & Methods: This was a cross-sectional study in which 200 elderly people were questioned in Kerman.  Social participation and life satisfaction were measured using the social participation questionnaires (Canadian Community Health Survey) and Life Satisfaction Index (LSI-Z). To analyze the data we used descriptive statistics and to study the relationship among variables, statistical tests such as Pearson correlation, Chi-square, T test and one-way ANOVA were used. Data were analyzed using the SPSS .17 software.

Results: The highest and lowest rates of social participation were related to participation in religious ceremonies and social communities such as neighborhood council, respectively.  Diseases and health (67.5%) were the most important barriers to social participation. However, more than half of the elderly people had medium life satisfaction (52.1%). There was a significant correlation between social participation and life satisfaction (p=0.003).

Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that the social participation has an important role in life satisfaction among the elderly people. Therefore, it is necessary to consider barriers of social participation such as geriatric disease.