Effect Of Psychological Group Intervention On Mental Health And General Well-being Of The Elders In Community

Background:Population aging is a serious crisis and challenges in the word. Elderly population in China is expected to more than400million and the aging population will reach more than30%in2050in accordance with international standards of an ageing society. The mental health of elderly has gradually attracted wide attention of the whole society.Objective:To explore the effect of positive-psychology-based group intervention on mental health and general well-being of the elderly people in community.Methods:76elderly people in one community enrolled the study. We explored the mental health, general well-being and their relative factors of all subjects using Symptom Checklist90(SCL-90), General Well-Being Schedule (GWB), Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), and Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ). Then all subjects were randomly divided into intervention group and control group. The intervention group received6sessions (60minutes every session) group psychological intervention based on positive psychological theory. The subjects in two groups were retested using the same scales after intervention.Results1. Objective support, subjective support, and utilization of support were negatively correlated with the total scores of SCL-90, negative coping positively correlated with the total score of SCL-90; objective support, subjective support, and utilization of support were positively correlated with the total scores of GWB, both two coping style had no association with the GWB. Moreover, multivariate regression analysis showed that negative coping style could predict SCL-90, subjective support could predict GWB.2. There were no significant differences in SCL-90, GWB and SSRS between two groups before intervention (P>0.05). The intervention group had significant lower total scores and factors of SCL-90(P<0.05), higher total scores and factors of GWB (P<0.05), higher total scores, objective and support scores of SSRS (p<O.01) and higher scores in positive coping style (p<0.01), lower scores in negative coping style (p<0.01) of SCSQ than control group after the intervention. Compared with control group, the intervention group had significant decreased total scores and factors of SCL-90(p<0.05), increased total scores and factors of GWB (except energy factor)(p<0.05), increased total scores, objective and subjective support score of SSRS (p<0.05) and increased scores in positive coping dimension (p<0.01), decreased scores in negative coping style (p<0.01) of SCSQ after intervention.Conclusion1. Mental health of the elders in community is related to the social support and coping styles, general well-being is related to the social support. Negative coping and subjective support have predictive value for mental health and general well-being of the elderly in communities.2. Positive psychological intervention could improve psychological health and the level of General Well-Being of the elderly in communities.