| Objective: In the first part of the paper, a research on the quality of life(QOL) and its influencing factors of elderly in nursing institutions of Taiyuan were made. The purpose is to find out the factors which influence the QOL of these old people. Further a comparative study of the elderly in rural areas and urban areas in Taiyuan was performed. The purpose of this study is to find out the differences in the QOL and its influencing factors between the two different nursing groups. In the second part of this paper, Taiyuan was regarded as the representative city of the central region of China, the QOL of the elderly in nursing institutions in Taiyuan were compared with the relative results from literature analysis which concern the western city of Urumqi and the eastern city of Beijing. The purpose is to find out the gap of the QOL in the elderly in nursing institutions among the current central, western, and the eastern city, analyze the possible reasons for the difference and then give some advice to these regions for developing.Methods: 1.Data collection: In the first part,7 institutions were extracted from 56 Taiyuan nursing institutions then an investigate has been done in the qualified elderly people from these 7 nursing institutions by one-on-one interview, using stratified cluster sampling method, SF-36 scale and self-made elderly general situation questionnaire. These institutions were sampled from different place include 5 urban areas and 2 rural areas. A total of 181 valid questionnaires were screened out, 112 from urban and 69 from rural areas. Through the survey of the general situation of the elderly, some basic data of the elderly were collected, including 12 factors, and these factors were analyzed as the possible influence factors of the elderly’s QOL. A systematic evaluation of the QOL of the elderly was done by the SF-36 scale.In the second part, the research results of the QOL of 181 old people in Taiyuan were compared with the data of the old people in Urumqi city and Beijing city which cited from papers. The data of these three city was collected in the same period(during a year) and by the same scale(SF-36 scale), there is a good comparability between comparison groups. 2.Data processing: At first, calculated the QOL score of the elderly in nursing institutions of Taiyuan, and a single factor variance analysis was made within the 12 different possible factor groups, a further LSD-t test was made between the dissimilar groups. Secondly, a multiple linear regression analysis was made, letting the 12 factors as the independent variable and the QOL of the elderly score as the dependent variable. Finally, the analysis of Taiyuan urban and rural areas was carried out in the same research methods, and the comparison between the two areas in the 8 dimensions of SF-36 QOL scores of the elderly was made. In the second part of this paper, the 8 dimensions of the QOL of the elderly in nursing institutions of Taiyuan city are compared with Urumqi and Beijing city.Results: Univariate analysis shows that the main factors which influencing the QOL of the elderly in nursing institutions of Taiyuan are occupation(P<0.01), self-care ability(P<0.001)and physical exercise(P<0.001), factors that introduced into multiple regression equation including occupation, self-care ability, physical exercise, residential satisfaction and education degree. Univariate analysis shows that factors in urban nursing institutions of Taiyuan include occupation(P<0.01), self-care ability(P<0.001), residential satisfaction(P<0.05)and physical exercise(P<0.001),factors that introduced into multiple regression equation including physical exercise,self-care ability and occupation. Univariate analysis shows that the self-care ability(P<0.01)is the only significative factor in rural nursing institutions of Taiyuan, it also the only factor that introduced into the multiple regression equation. In the result comparison between rural areas and urban areas, the physiological function is the only dimension that shows rural areas higher than urban areas during the 7 statistically significant dimensions, the rest of the dimensions have the opposite result. Through the comparison of the QOL in the elderly in nursing institutions among central,western and eastern region, it can be found that the whole situation of eastern region is better than Centre and West, but the gap between mental health is bigger than physical health.Conclusion: 1.Self-care ability is one of the most important factors that influencing the QOL of the elderly in nursing institutions, the elderly with lower self-care ability should be given more care to let them have healthy mental state. 2.Nursing institutions in urban areas of Taiyuan need to further improve the mental health of the elderly, by providing necessary physical exercise conditions, rich cultural and entertainment facilities, etc. In contrast, the nursing institutions in rural area of Taiyuan need to diversify and integrally improve the material conditions first. 3.Nursing institutions in developed areas need to seek new ways to innovate and improve the nursing model, to provide more comprehensive and scientific nursing environment for the elderly. The central and western regions should follow the eastern example to build the most suitable nursing institutions for the elderly according to their own living environment. The western region needs to further improve the basic physiological health of the elderly. 4.Physiological health and mental health are equally important for the elderly, different regions should consider its economic and social conditions, to enrich their spiritual life on condition of good physiological health, make sure the QOL of the elderly of nursing institutions have an all-round improvement. 5.Solving the nursing problem needs the joint efforts of the elderly themselves, families, society and institutions. It has a good prospect to build a comprehensive model that combine community and home care together and concurrently put institution care as a base. |
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