The Relationship between Irrational Beliefs, Mindfulness and Cognitive Fusion with Social Health among Elderly in Ardabil, 2016

Introduction: The World Health Organization stressed on the importance of social health as well as physical health, so social health has become the common concern of sociologists and social planners in each community. The present study was conducted to determine the relationship between irrational beliefs, mindfulness and cognitive fusion with social health in elderly. Method: In this descriptive study, 112 Elderly men were selected by available sampling method from all elderly men over 60 years old in Ardabil city, 2016. For data collection, the irrational beliefs scale, mindfulness scale, cognitive fusion scale and social health scale were used. Research data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression methods by SPSS 23 statistical software. Results: The results showed a significant relationship between irrational beliefs (r=-0/58, p<0.05), mindfulness (r=0/47, p<0.05) and cognitive fusion (r=-0/63, p<0.05) with social health. Beta coefficients for predictor variables indicated that irrational beliefs -0/32, mindfulness 0/33, cognitive fusion -0/38 have significantly predictive capability of social health of elderly (p<0.05). Conclusion: From this study, it can be concluded that elderly with higher levels of irrational beliefs and cognitive fusion have lower social health than their peers, while higher mindfulness could improve the social health in them.