Evaluation of Privacy Level among Elderly Patients in the Educational and Medical Centers of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in 2019

Privacy is a basic principle of humanity and one of the most important fundamental rights of every human, that adherence to it is required particularly in health care organizations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate privacy level of elderly patients in educational and medical centers of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences. This cross-sectional study was performed on 230 elderly patients hospitalized in internal and surgical wards of educational and medical centers of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of medical sciences. Data were collected by a researcher-made questionnaire. The questionnaire was prepared in two dimensions of psychological with 11 questions and physical with 18 questions. Validity of the questionnaire was evaluated by experts and professors. Results showed that 62.2% (143 people) of the patients were female and the rest were male. In terms of adherence to privacy, 47.13% of women and 51.75% of men evaluated it as high and 13.79% of women and 20.28% of men evaluated it as poor. The level of privacy in terms of gender of the patient, nurse, and the physician in charge were statistically different (P-value<0.05). However, there was no significant difference between adherence to privacy and age and occupation of patient before retirement, marital status of nurse, and physician in charge (P-value> 0.05). Training of nurses, physicians, personnel, and health care providers to enhance privacy of elderly patients and reinforce supervisory performance of managers and authorities is necessary.