Objectives: The global phenomena of population aging-along with all its relevant issues, i.e. ailments, disabilities and problems threatening the physical and mental status of the elderly-is rapidly progressing in Iran among many other countries. On the other hand, socioeconomic developments as well as Individual and family lifestyle changes, have led to the growing number of residential facilities for the elderly. Regarding the importance of residential environment on various aspects of mental health, the study has measured and compared the stress, anxiety and depression between the elderly living in the nursery home and those living in the home. Method:This comparative descriptive study,conducted in a cross-sectional study, used a nonprobability sample of 436 old people of Tehran in 2017-including 218 community residents and 218 nursery homes residents. Participants were interviewed using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale short-form version (DASS-21). Comparisons between the two groups were made using unrelated T-test via SPSSv.20. Findings:The mean and standard deviation average stress, anxiety and depression in elderly people who are residents of nursing home(37.75±11.34) is higher than home residents(26.68±5.64). The observed differences in stress, anxiety and depression between two group's were statistically significant (p ≤0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the stress, anxiety and depression in the elderly living in nursery home are more than those in the elderly living at home. Thus, providing more welfare and comforts in the home, supporting home-carers in some ways, establishing more elderly day care centers and providing better health insurance coverage for senior citizens would be very helpful to enhance the mental health of them.

1. Introduction ne aspect of old age is existential anxiety. Although it is a sincere response to ignorance and a consequence of consciousness, if one fails to give a meaningful response, it can lead to Demoralization Syndrome O (DS) [1, 2]. This syndrome can cause mental distress, reduced quality of life and even severe depression. The formation of adaptive or maladaptive responses to existential anxieties is influenced by several factors, including living place. Most seniors prefer to stay at home rather than moving to a nursing home [3]. However, the increase in the elderly population along with social, economic, personal and family lifestyle changes have increased the number of nursing homes [4]. The purpose of this study was to inves

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