| Purpose: This research was conducted to answer the following question: To what extent is depression of elderly people explained by gender, age, social factors, and physical exercise ? Methods : one thousand randomly selected community-dwelling elderly people aged 60 and older elderly completed the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Results: Multiple logistic regression model showed that gender, physical exercise, all of social factors were significantly associated with the depression, whereas age and education were not. Social support, of social economic condition and regularity of praying had strong association , whereas the strongest association was the social support, Elderly people without the social support, are going to have 6,5 fold higher risk for depression than elderly people with social support. Conclusion: The role of social support in the life of elderly people was very important , especially to prevent depression of elderly. |