Extended Abstract
1. Objectives
Old age is inevitable, and attention to the issues and needs of this stage is a social necessity. Because of the importance of the elderly, the importance of the life satisfaction among the elderly, considering the different side effects of this age group, and also given that the life review therapy provides opportunities to elderly which helps them in solving their past and lifelong conflict through their own successes, it seems like this therapy can have an effect on their sense of coherence and life satisfaction. Since no other study has been conducted so far, therefore, the present study has been conducted with an aim to investigate the effectiveness of the life review therapy on life satisfaction and the sense of coherence between middle-aged and elderly women, residents of a nursing home in Qazvin city. Therefore, the prime question of the current study is that is life review training is effective for life satisfaction and for the sense of coherence of older middle-aged women?
2. Methods and Materials 
The present research is quasi-experimental with pre-test post-test control group. The statistical population consisted of elderly women, aged between 50-80 years, living in the nursing home of Qazvin. The sample consisted of 30 subjects selected by simple random sampling and divided into two groups of 15 (experimental and control) in a random manner (two groups were matched for age and level of education). The Deiner’s Satisfaction with Life Scale (1985) [33], Sense of Coherence Questionnaire by Felstenburg et al. (2006) [35] were used for data collection. The Diner Life Satisfaction Scale has five items and it was designed to measure overall life satisfaction. In a research, desired validity (convergent and differential method), reliability (Cronbach’s alpha is 0.85) has been reported for this scale. Sense of Coherence Questionnaire test consisted of 35 questions with 3 or 5 options and scores with a (3-point) Likert scale. The reliability of the present scale in this study was obtained with Cronbach’s alpha equaled to 0.84. Therapeutic design of this research was based on the life review therapy of Haight and Webster (1955), in which the structure of the comprehensiveness and individualism evaluation have been taken into account. It is based on the fact that the entire life cycle of a person is reviewed in 6 sessions during a 6-week cycle. Initially, all samples responded to the questionnaires. After that, the educational sessions of the Life Review Program was held in groups, which included cognitive restructuring of thoughts, negative views, renaming, and the positive interpretation of the negative aspects of a person’s memories, and with an emphasis on positive memories, individual coherence, reducing frustration, and increasing life satisfaction. The post-test was taken from the experimental and control group. SPSS software and covariance analysis were used to analyze the data. This research was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Islamic Azad University of Abhar Branch.
3. Results
Mean age of control group equal to 65 and the mean age of the experimental group were 67 years. Independent t-test was used to compare the age of groups, because of the interval scale of the measurement. Considering that the significance level was larger than 0.05, it was concluded that there was no difference between groups and they were homogenous in terms of age. Mean and standard deviation of age was 65±2.88 for control group and 67±3.56 for the experimental group. Average life satisfaction of the control group was 17.86 and 17.60 before and after training, respectively. The mean of life satisfaction for the experimental group was 17.90 and 24.86 before and after training, respectively. 
The data showed that the mean scores of the control group in the posttest were not so different relative to the pre-test. While in the experimental group we saw an increase in life satisfaction scores in the post-test as compared to the pre-test. Mean score of the control group in the posttest was not significantly different than that of the pre-test. While we witnessed an increase in the sense of coherence in posttest in the experimental group as compared to the pre-test. Multivariate Covariance Analysis (MANCOVA) was used to investigate the effectiveness of the life review therapy on the satisfaction of life and the sense of coherence of elderly women. We conducted a covariance analysis after confirming the homogeneity assumption of the covariance matrix and variance of dependent variables between the groups as the assumptions of the covariance analysis test. Also, the mean of the sense of coherence variable in control group was 69.80 and 69.93 before and after training, respectively, while the average for the experimental group was 73.46 and 84.46 before and after training, respectively. 
The results of covariance analysis showed that the process of review of life therapy sessions increased life satisfaction and the sense of coherence of the elderly in the experimental group was more than the control group (P<0.001). There was a significant difference between the scores of the two experimental and control groups in terms of life satisfaction and sense of coherence in post-test. In order to investigate the difference between the experimental and control groups in each of these variables, intra-subject test effects were used, the results of which are presented below. Inter-subject test results to compare life satisfaction and the sense of coherence of elderly women in experimental and control groups in the post-test showed that considering the higher mean scores of the experimental group in the post-test, it can be concluded that life review therapy improves life satisfaction and the sense of coherence of elderly women.
4. Conclusion
The results of this study showed that life review significantly increased life satisfaction among the elderly. Life review therapy leads to reassessing the past, resolving conflicts, concluding again, and, hence, they have a sense of cohesion and integration by reviving experiences and conflicts. Another result of the post-test study was that life review significantly increased the sense of coherence among the elderly. It is also a life review therapeutic process that increases their insight and understanding of themselves. This change is accompanied by emotional, cognitive and behavioral changes. Therefore, it can be concluded that the life review therapy increases the sense of coherence. Therefore, results of the present study show that life review has an impact on elderly people’s sense of coherence and life satisfaction. It can, therefore, be considered as an alternative therapeutic approach or a complementary procedure along with existing therapies to improve quality of life of elderly people.
Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
The ethics committee of Abhar Islamic Azad University has confirmed this research.
Funding
This article is part of Mohammad Javad Rajabi's Master thesis in Department of Counseling and Guidance, Islamic Azad University of Abhar.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to all the staff at the nursing homes of Qazvin, and especially the elderly nursing home who helped us in this research.

 

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