Spring 2016. Vol 11. Num 1 132 I RANIAN J OURNAL of A GEING * Corresponding Author: Mahshid Foroughan, PhD Address: Iranian Research Center on Ageing, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitaion Sciences, Kodakyar Ave., Daneshjo Blv., Evin, Tehran, Iran. Tel: +98 (21) 2280004 E-mail: m_foroughan@yahoo.com Research Paper The Relaionship between Disability and Variables of Depression, Cogniive Status, and Morale among Older People 1. Department of Ageing, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitaion Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 2. Iranian Research Center on Ageing, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitaion Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 3. Department of Clinical Sciences, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitaion Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 4. Department of Staisics, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitaion Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Mohammad Reza Shahbazi 1 , *Mahshid Foroughan 2 , Reza Salman Roghani 3 , Mehdi Rahgozar 4 Objecives This study aimed to assess disability and its relaionship with depression, cogniive status, and morale in older people. Methods & Materials This descripive-analyic research was conducted in a day-care rehabilitaion center of Kahrizak charity foundaion. A total of 90 older adults were selected by total enumeraion sampling method. For the evaluaion of study paricipants, we used The World Health Organizaion Disability As- sessment 2.0 (WHODAS II) (36 items). This quesionnaire examines the person’s disability in 6 domains of cogniion, mobility, self-care, geing along, life aciviies, and social paricipaion. The depression status was determined by Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15), cogniive status by Abbreviated Mental test (AMT), and morale of older people by Lawton’s Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale. The Chi- square test, Independent t-test, Mann-Whitney U-test, Kruskal-Wallis, and the Spearman correlaion coeicient were carried out to analyze the data in SPSS version 16. Results About 34% (n=31) of the paricipants were male and 65.6% (n=59) were females. The mean (SD) age of the sample was 72.39 (6.75) years. There were signiicant diferences between men and women with regard to age, marital status (P<0.001), and income. The number of single women was 15 imes more than that of the single men, and the men’s income was 2 imes more than the women’s income. The mean (SD) score of older adults’ disability was 20.61 (13.66) indicaing a signiicant diference be- tween men and women (P=0.001). The women’s mean disability score was higher than that of men. With regard to 6 domains of disability, the highest disability was seen in domains of mobility, life acivi- ies, and paricipaion. There were also signiicant diferences between men and women with regard to the mean disability scores of mobility (P=0.001), life aciviies (P=0.001), and paricipaion (P=0.005), i.e., the mean disability scores of women were higher than those of men. However, there were no dif- ferences between men and women with regard to domains of geing along, cogniion, and self-care. Furthermore, there were no signiicant diferences between various educaional groups with regard to mean scores of disabiliies. There were signiicant associaions between disability scores and depression (P<0.001), cogniive status (P<0.001), and morale of older people (P<0.001). This associaion was direct in depression and reverse in cogniive status, and morale, i.e., with an increase in depression scores and a decrease in cogniive status and morale, the disability of older people increases. There were signiicant and reverse associaions between disability and 3 subscales of spirit of agitaion (P<0.001), aitudes to aging (P<0.001), and dissaisfacion with loneliness (P<0.001). Conclusion Disability in older people had a signiicant relaionship with their depression, cogniive status, and morale. Thus, the degree of their disability can be lowered by prevenion and early treatment of de- pression, promoion of memory, delaying cogniive disorders, as well as providing morale enhancement programs, creaing a posiive aitude toward old age, and increasing life saisfacion in older people. A B S T R A C T Key words: Cogniion, Depres- sion, Disabil- ity, Morale, Older adults, World health organizaion Received: 08 Nov. 2015 Accepted: 04 Feb. 2016 Citation: Shahbazi MR, Foroughan M, Salman Roghani MR, Rahgozar M. [The relationship between disability and depression, cognitive tatus and morale among older persons (Persian)]. Iranian Journal of Ageing. 2016; 11(4):132-141. :