Research On Health Related Quality Of Life And Its Affecting Factors In Rural Elderly

Objective: As China enters an aging society and the proposal of "healthy China 2030" policy,the health problems of the elderly has raised social concern.By analyzing the empirical data of the rural elderly in China,this paper aims to figure out Health Related Quality of Life(HRQOL)in rural areas,its influencing factors,and try to put forward some useful suggestions.Methods: This paper makes investigations about 3053 rural elderly aged 60 and over,who has been investigated by local well-trained investigators by multi-stage sampling from March to May2014.It aims to learn about the personal and family's basic situation and the behavior pattern of those elderly and their HRQOL(divided into two sub-dimensions of physical and mental health).The rank-sum test is used to analyze the differences of HRQOL in different types of rural elderly.Multivariate analysis about the influencing factors of HRQOL is performed by stratified Logistic regression model and Structural Equation Modeling(SEM).Main results: First,the average scores of physical health of the participants is 43.16 ? 10.36,and the average scores of mental health is 44.62 ? 8.65,which is lower than the norm.Second,HRQOL scores of the elderly investigated,who are female,80 and over,widowed,uneducated,and not supported by themselves and their spouses are significantly low.Third,family factors have larger effects on the mental health of those people than the physical health.personal and behavioral factors have indirect effects on physical health though mental health,and the indirect effects are respectively-0.014 and 0.036.Fourth,after comparison,Logistic regression model is considered more suitable for finding the risk factors and simply exploring the impact of personal,family and behavioral factors on the HRQOL of the elderly in rural areas,while SEM is better for exploring the deep relationship and influencing path between the latent variables.Conclusions and Suggestions: First,HRQOL scores of the rural elderly is low.health services should be valued,and HRQOL scores of the rural elderly should be improved.Second,there are some health inequalities among different groups of the elderly in the rural areas,and the vulnerable elderly should be concerned and the health equality of those people should be improved.Third,good behaviors are beneficial to the physical and mental health of the elderly,so health management should be strengthened in order to increase the rate of healthy living patterns of those people.Fourth,the support from family is the key to HRQOL of the elderly in rural areas,so the construction of family culture is important,and the support from the children also should be emphasized.