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Background and purpose: Different sources have provided various descriptions on the onset of senescence and its associated factors. Any person may become senile at a different age. The objective of the present study was to explore the feelings related to the onset of aging and factors influencing it based on old women’s experience. Materials and methods: This study used a qualitative approach and Graneheim and Lundman’s content analysis. The participants included 20 elderly women. The data from 20 interviews were investigated and analyzed. Alongside data collection, analysis was achieved through continuous text revision, observation and in-field notes. Results: According to the findings, the onset of senescence was tangible for some participants and gradual and intangible for others, giving rise to two different aspects of senescence mental and physical senescence. In this study, some elderly women had a mental feeling of senescence and some underlying factors (such as death of partner, death of children, children leaving home for university or getting married, and experiencing many diseases) made them to feel senescence at a different age (before or after 65 years)). Considering the participants’ age, their comments referred to mental senescence. On the other hand, some participants did not mention a specific time for feeling senile and simply stated that it was a gradual process. Thus, it appears that these participants experienced another aspect of senescence, which was physical senescence. Conclusion: According to our findings, some elderly women experienced emotional aging while others experienced physical senescence. Nurses and caregivers are ought to recognize and pay more attention to these two feelings in order to provide optimal care for elderly women.

Keywords: Physical aging, emotional aging, elderly women, qualitative study

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