Factors Associated with Distress Tolerance among Community Dwelling Older Adults

Certain people appear to tolerate stress more than others. To shed light on variations in theolder adults tolerance to stress and the reasons behind it, factors which act as moderators should beexamined. Objective: Determine factors associated with distress tolerance among community dwellingolder adults. Setting: Somoha health insurance outpatient clinics, Alexandria Governorate, Egypt.Subjects: 168 older adults were recruited. Tools: Three tools were used for data collection: 1) Sociodemographicand clinical data structured interview schedule of community dwelling older adults, 2)Factors associated with distress tolerance structured interview schedule of community dwelling olderadults, and 3) The Distress Tolerance Scale (DTS). Results: The present study findings showed thatthe study subjects showed low scores of distress tolerance on the whole which is significantly relatedto different individual variables. Conclusion: Distress tolerance among the study subjects issignificantly associated with personal characteristics, living arrangement, health history, life stylepatterns, psychological status, and spiritual activities. Recommendations: The gerontological nursesshould be oriented to all factors which could affect the older adults appraisal of possibly stressfulsituations and their physical, emotional, and behavioral responses to stress and act to control them.