Influence Of Chronic Diseases On Health-Related Quality Of Life Of The Elderly

Objective:This study aims to understand the situation of health-related quality of life in older people,to explore the impact of chronic diseases on health-related quality of life,and to verify the mediating role of social support in the relationship between chronic diseases and health-related quality of life.In order to be able to target the prevention and control of chronic diseases in the future and improve the quality of life of the elderly.Methods:In this study,a multi-stage random sampling method was used to select 3266 elderly people aged 60 years and above from 11 localities in Shanxi Province as the study population.Using the general demographic questionnaire,chronic disease prevalence,health-related factors questionnaire,European Five Dimensional Health Scale(EQ-5D-5L)and Perception Social Support Scale(PSSS)as the survey instruments,and a total of 3250 valid questionnaires were collected.Descriptive analyses were conducted on general demographic and health-related factors;two independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to analyse the characteristics of chronic disease,perceived social support and health-related quality of life among the elderly;Pearson correlation was used to analyse the correlation between chronic disease,perceived social support and health-related quality of life;multiple stratified regression analysis was used to investigate the role of perceived social support in The role of perceived social support in mediating chronic disease and health-related quality of life was investigated using multiple stratified regression analysis;the model of mediating role was validated using stepwise causal regression.Results:1.Basic information of the study subjects: In this survey,there were a total of3,250 elderly people in 11 cities in Shanxi Province,with an average age of(69.65±6.77)years,among whom 1,769(54.4%)were aged 60-69;1,515(46.6%)were male and 1,735(53.4%)were female;76.4% of the elderly people were married;the education level of primary school(32.7%);the living area was mostly rural(55.3%);and 50.8% of the elderly were empty nesters.2.In this study,the prevalence of chronic diseases among the elderly was58.5%(1901 people),there were(1.13±1.33)chronic diseases in the elderly.The prevalence of chronic diseases by disease were the top eight: hypertension(29.4%),diabetes(10.8%),rheumatism or rheumatoid arthritis(10.3%),hearing impairment(8.1%),gastritis or peptic ulcer(6.5%),osteoporosis(6.4%),coronary heart disease(6.3%)and cataract(5.6%).The results of the univariate analysis showed a significant differences in the number of chronic diseases from different gender,age,living area,educational level,marital status,empty nest situation,monthly income,economic source,diet mix,alcohol consumption,smoking status,and tea drinking frequency(P<0.05).The total score of health-related quality of life among the elderly in this survey was(0.87±0.22).There were significant differences in health-related quality of life scores among different ages,living regions,literacy level,regularity of three meals,marriage status,monthly income,economic source,dietary collocation,drinking status,and frequency of drinking tea(P<0.05).The overall score of perceived social support among the elderly in this survey was(66.15 ± 13.69).Significant differences were found in perceived social support scores among different ages,educational level,marital status,empty nest situation,monthly income,economic source,regularity of three meals,dietary collocation,drinking status,and frequency of drinking tea(P<0.05).3.The problem reporting rates of the five dimensions of health-related quality of life from big to small were: pain/discomfort(42.7%),anxiety/depression(29.8%),ability to move(23.0%),ability to live daily(20.6%),and self-care ability(18.9%).4.The results of Pearson correlation analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between chronic diseases,perceived social support and health-related quality of life(P<0.05).There was a significant negative correlation between the number of chronic diseases and perceived social support and health-related quality of life,and a significant positive correlation between perceived social support and health-related quality of life.Multi-level regression analysis showed that perceived social support of the elderly plays a partially mediating role between chronic disease and health-related quality of life.Conclusions:Chronic diseases have a significant impact on the health-related quality of life of older people in Shanxi Province,where the prevalence of chronic diseases is high and the health-related quality of life is in the middle to upper range of the country.The higher the number of chronic diseases suffered,the lower the health-related quality of life.The relationship between chronic disease,perceived social support and health-related quality of life was significant,controlling for other factors.Perceived social support mediated the relationship between chronic disease and health-related quality of life.This suggests that interventions to improve perceived social support can be used to improve health-related quality of life in older people with chronic disease.