Research on quality of life and influencing factors for the empty-nester elderly in rural area in Hunan / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the life quality and influencing factors for empty nester elderly in rural area in Hunan,and to provide the scientific basis for the effective interventions.Methods The two villages of Yiyang and Huaihua were randomly selected by cluster sampling from June 2011 to December 2011 in Hunan.Data of the world health organizations quality of life instrument-short version (WHOQOL-BREF) was collected by face to face interview with the empty nesters.The risk factors for the quality of life in empty nester elderly in rural area were analyzed by the multiple linear regression analysis.Results A total of 785 valid questionnaires were acquired,among which 472 cases were from empty nester elderly (60.1％,472/785),the average age of them was (69.3±7.3) years,and the malefemale ratio was 1.11 (250222).The literacy of 81.8％ of empty nester elderly were under junior middle school,69.7％ of them married with consorts who were still living,74.4％ of them were farmer,75.2％ of them had monthly income under 500 Yuan,56.4％ of them got the income from their own labor,69.9％ of them considered that their relationship with children were harmony.64.2 ％ of empty nester elderly in village suffered from chronic diseases and 16.7 ％ of them suffered from accidental injury within the last one year.The scores in physiological health,psychological health and quality of life were lower in empty nester elderly than in the non-empty nester elderly [(60.8±15.7) vs.(63.1±13.5),(59.0±12.1) w (64.6±17.4),(59.5±9.8) vs.(63.0 ± 10.1),t=3.18,4.43,4.91,all P＜0.05].The multiple linear regression analysis showed that the influencing factors for quality of life in empty nester elderly were education background,marital status,source of finance,relationship with children,chronic disease and accidental injury within the last one year (β=1.693,2.426,0.779,1.060,-7.007,-3.784,all P＜0.05).Conclusions The empty-nest elderly accounts for more than half of the elderly in rural area,who have the lower levels in physio-psychological health and quality of life.We should improve their awareness and knowledge of health,build their harmonious relationship with spouse and children,improve the social security and medical insurance system,actively promote the knowledge of chronic disease and accidental injury,in order to improve the quality of life in empty nester elderly and achieve the healthy aging.