Abstract

Aging is among the phenomena more commonly discussed in world health in recent years. Disability is a good indicator to measure health status in the aging population. Accordingly, the primary objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of disability and its relationship with demographic characteristics of the elderly in Zahedan city in Iran in 2016. This is a cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study. Using two-stage random sampling, 400 seniors were selected in Zahedan and were studied. A researcher made questionnaire was used to collect demographic information and disability study instruments included WHODAS - 36 items without time code. Collected data were analyzed using the SPSS version 16 software using the chi-square test. Of 400, 218 individuals were female and 182ones were male and the mean age of the participant's was 73.21 +/- 6.82 years old. The overall prevalence of disability among the elderly in Zahedan was 62.3. The prevalence of disability had a significant relationship with age, education, occupation and income level (p < 0.05), whereas no relationship was observed between disability with gender and marital status (p > 0.05). The highest prevalence of disability was in the areas of understanding, communication and getting around, whereas the lowest cases were in the areas of getting along and living with others, and self-care. According to the findings of this study, welfare policies and providing service packages for the elderly of higher age, lower education, and lower income level as well as the unemployed and disabled elderly can help both the individuals and the community.