Factors influencing quality of life of the elderly living at a nursing home of Shanghai / 中华健康管理学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the quality of life of the elderly living at a nursing home and its influencing factors.Methods One hundred and sixty elderly living at one nursing home of Shanghai completed 36-item Short Form (SF-36) Health Survey,Social Support Rate Scale,Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and UCLA Loneliness Scale (UCLA-LS) to evaluate the factors that influenced the quality of life and the relationship between quality of life,social support,depression and loneliness in December of 2011.Results The mean age of the elderly was (82.0 ± 8.8).The polynary linear step-wise regression analysis showed that physical function of the elderly was mainly influenced by having children or not,frequency of physical activity and self-assessment of health condition.Role-physical,social function,vitality and role-emotional of the elderly were mainly influenced by age,frequency of physical activity and selfassessment of health condition.Bodily pain of the elderly was mainly influenced by sex and self-assessment of health condition.General health of the elderly was mainly influenced by age,frequency of physical activity,chronic diseases,and self-assessment of health condition.Mental health of the elderly was mainly influenced by age,living status,frequency of physical activity and self-assessment of health condition.Subjective support was positively related to role-emotional and mental health.However,the life quality of the elderly was positively correlated with objective support,utilization of support,total score of social support and each dimension of SF-36.The depression and loneliness of the elderly were negtively related to each dimension of SF-36.Conclusions Multiple factors may influence the quality of life of the elderly.The whole society and family members should make concern and set up better environment to for the elderly.