Investigation of Daily Activities for Elderly Members of Veterans’ Families in Ahvaz City (Iran) in 1392(2013-14)

Old-age is a period during which the elderly are exposed to potential threats such as increased incidence of disease, and their individual independence is threatened due to physical and mental disabilities. One of the best ways to assess the health level of the elderly is to investigate their activity level; therefore, the present research aims at investigating the Veteran organization's old members’ daily activities in Ahvaz, Iran.This is a descriptive-analytical investigation which was done on 325 elderly members of Veteran Organization over 65 years. Data collection was conducted using standard questionnaire of Lawton's Daily Activities. The data were analyzed utilizing SPSS software.The results revealed that the majority of the units under investigation were females (61.23%) and married (63.3%) and had primary education level (49.2%). Investigating the questionnaire indicated that generally, the highest ability of the subjects was in using telephone (87.7%) and the lowest was in shopping (41.5%). Mann-Withney U test showed a significant difference between the subjects’ abilities, marital status and health level (P < 0.05). Cerossal valis test indicated a significant difference between the subjects’ abilities and education level and activity participations (P < 0.05). According to the Spearman's Correlation Coefficient, there was a reversed significant relationship between ability levels and age, and number of children.The results revealed that different variables could affect the elderly daily activities. Most of the subjects were at good level of daily activities; therefore, the families and health caregivers should provide with them the facilitating factors through outdoors programs and activities to elevate their physical involvement.