1. Introduction
According to the United Nations, a significant proportion of the elderly population lives in developing countries including Iran that are not prepared to deal with the phenomenon of aging and its social and economic health consequences [1, 2]. Given Iran’s current young population, it is expected that in the next 50 years, it will be one of the countries with a large percentage of older adults [3]. Considering the important role of mosques as one of the main religious-spiritual bases for social, psychological and physical issues of the elderly in Iran, as well as the growth of the Iranian elderly population in recent years and not paying attention to the specific designs of mosques for this population, it seems that identifying and removing barriers in mosques to the presence of the elderly is necessary. In this regard, the aim of the present study is to identify the components of structural suitability for elderly-friendly mosques through a qualitative approach. The approach was selected because it emphasizes on observing phenomena naturally without any presumptions and its results can be used to explain the components and create new theories.
2. Methods
This is a qualitative study using a conventional content analysis method. It obtained an ethical approval from the Ethics Committee of Babol University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.MUBABOL.HRI.REC.1398.324). The study population consisted of the elderly attended the mosques of Babol city, Iran aged >60 years. Mosques were selected based on geographical distribution and sampling was done using a purposive technique continued until data saturation from January to May 2020. In this regard, 18 eligible older adults were selected. The inclusion criteria were regular and weekly attendance at mosques to perform religious duties, being able to transfer experiences about the subject, and willingness to participate in the study.  
In-depth semi-structured interviews were used for collecting data by semi-open-ended questions such as: “What are the structural barriers and problems that you and other seniors have in using the mosque environment?” Exploratory questions were also used to deepen the interview and extract more information. The interviews were conducted individually and face to face inside the mosques. The duration of each interview was 20-40 minutes. The interviews continued until the information was saturated. The recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using continuous comparison and content analysis.
3. Results
In this study, 18 older people aged 61-72 years (Mean±SD age= 66.33±2.99 years) participated, of whom 13 were women and 17 were married. After carefully reading the interviews and separating the conceptual units as code, 520 initial codes were obtained. By continuous comparison and data analysis, these codes were divided into 18 subcategories, which finally resulted in 5 main categories presented in Table 1.


Outdoor environment: this category included following subcategories: Accessibility, Access to parking lot, and Access to public transportation. Indoor environment: this category included following subcategories: Landscaping, Gender inequality in the interior space division, Interior space dimensions, Partitioning interior space, and Decorating and beautifying the interior space. Having basic welfare amenities: this category included following subcategories: Sound system Air, conditioning system, Light and brightness, and Cooling and heating systems. Equipment: this category included following subcategories: Adaptation of internal requirements, and safety. Internal facilities: this category included following subcategories: Communication facilities between storeys, Toilet, Ablution house, and Catering services
4. Discussion and Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to find the structural factors of mosques according to the perspective of the elderly in Babol. The results revealed five factors of the outdoor environment, indoor environment, basic welfare amenities, equipment, and internal facilities. The identified factors can help identify and prioritize needs and select the type of interventions in the mosques appropriate to the characteristics of the elderly. Mosques are a suitable place for the social participation of the elderly and the provision of their spiritual desires and needs. Hence, their structures should have a favorable design for the elderly. The results of this study can pave the way for future studies on the structural factors of elderly-friendly mosques. A similar study can be conducted in other cities of Iran to confirm and complete the results by combination with quantitative methods to obtain other aspects that might not be detectable due to the limited location of the study or the specific cultures of the study city.

Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Babol University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.MUBABOL.HRI.REC.1398.324).

Funding
This study was extracted from the MSc. thesis of the first author at the Student Research Committee, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol.

Authors' contributions
Conceptualization: Aram Tirgar; Methodology, draft writing: Samaneh Pourhadi, Mandana Kalantar; Date analysis: Samaneh Pourhadi; Final editor: All authors.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Vice-Chancellor for Research of Babol University of Medical Sciences and the seniors participated in the study for their support and cooperation.


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