Phenomenology of the lived experiences of lonely aged women from abandonment and rejection

Introduction: Changes in the demographic and family structure of the country have led to an increase in the number of elderly and the emergence of a new group of elderly women alone. Understanding the situation of this group of women is not very important from the perspective of an outside observer, but from their own perspective in the success of aging programs and social policy for this group. The main question of this study is how this group spends the last years of their lives and what understanding and interpretation they have of their relationships with others. Method: In this study, the phenomenological approach of Smith, Flowers and Larkin has been used to understand the lived experience of elderly women alone. Study field is the city of Boukan in the province of West Azerbaijan, and the study population is all alone women aged 60 and over. A total of 10 people were selected by purposive sampling method and studied using semi-structured in-depth interviews. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis and qualitative data analysis software (MAXQDA12). Results: From the total of interviews, 12 basic concepts were extracted and abstractly categorized into 5 categories, including "feeling of abandonment", "feeling of rejection", "feeling of loneliness", " concerns about decrepitude and overload" and " concerns of dying alone" it was. Discussion: This study shows that although the lonely and independent life of older women is incompatible with local norms, but structural and value changes in the family have led to the marginalization and expansion of this group of women who, in addition to its issues and problems, have neighborhood supportive benefits. This study suggests that the country's aging policies should be organized instead of keeping the elderly in a nursing home, in order to keep the elderly in private homes while providing neighborhood care and allocating nursing allowances.