BackgroundSocial support is emotional and instrumental assistance from family, friends or neighbors, and has an important but different impact on individuals, mainly depending on contextual factors.ObjectiveTo determine the status of perceived social support and related personal and family characteristics of medical sciences students in Ahvaz, Iran.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, the target population included the students of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in the second semester of 2013–2014, of whom 763 were selected by cluster random sampling method. The study tool was a two-part questionnaire containing 48 self-administered questions including 25 questions of measurements of personal and family characteristics and a Persian modified version of Vaux’s social support scale (Cronbach’s α=0.745). Data were analyzed with T test, ANOVA and chi-square and using SPSS version 16 and 0.05 was considered as the level of significance.ResultsThe mean score of the perceived social support was 17.06±3.6 and 60.3% of them reported low social support. There was a significant relationship among the perceived social support and sex (p=0.02), faculty (p<0.0001), ethnicity (p=0.034) and the duration of weekly residence in dormitory (p=0.031). But no significant relationship was found between this variable and other individual and familial characteristics.ConclusionBased on students’ low social support and importance of social support in reducing stress and academic failure, the planners need to provide efficient supportive interventions for students.
Active ageing is a multidimensional, relative, and context-dependent concept with different paths and outcomes. This qualitative study aimed to explore personal active aging strategies in a specific context. Following a directed thematic analysis procedure, we conducted semi-structured individual interviews with 39 seniors (men and women) between the ages of 60-97 years selected with purposeful sampling, data collection and analysis were concurrent. We used directed content analysis to analyze the data from interviews, written narratives, and field notes. The reliability of data was fulfilled following Lincoln and Guba criteria. We stopped data collection when no new concepts were added, and data saturation occurred. Based on the experience of seniors, we identified four categories: (a) Reventive, (b) Coping, (c) Internal Self-Control, and (d) Opportunity Exploiting Strategies. These described the active aging strategies when encountering age-related change. Utilizing these strategies, the senior accompanied the lifetime. The finding suggests that active aging is a continuous process in confronting age-related change. The identified strategies can help promote active aging by familiarizing the elderly with opportunities of life and training them in how to use these strategies.
Background: Active ageing is a multidimensional, relative, and context-dependent concept with different paths and outcomes. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore personal active ageing strategies in a specific context. Method: Following a directed content analyze procedure, we conduct semi structured individual interview with 39 elder (men and women) between the ages of 60-97 years that selected with purposeful sampling .data collection and analysis were concurrent. We analyzed the data from interviews, written narratives, and field notes using directed content analyze. The Reliability of data was fulfilled in accordance Lincoln and Guba criteria. We stopped data collection when no new concept was added and data saturation occurred. Results: Based on the experience of elders, we identified 5 categories: 1) Preventive 2) Coping 3) Internal self-control 4) Coherence maintenance strategies 5) Opportunity exploiting strategies. These described the active ageing strategies when encountering with age related change. Utilizing these strategies, the elder accompanied the life time. Conclusion: The finding suggests that active ageing is a continuous process in confronting age related change. The identified strategies can help to promote active ageing by familiarizing older with opportunities of life and training them in how to use these strategies.
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