Mental health is the most important factor influencing quality of life in elderly left behind when families migrate out of rural China

OBJECTIVES: to investigate the quality of life and the associated factors on left behind elderly in rural China.METHOD: the research was conducted cluster sampling to select 456 elderly left behind when family members migrated out of rural China to participate in a cross-sectional study by completin...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jian-fei Xie, Si-qing Ding, Zhu-qing Zhong, Qi-feng Yi, Sai-nan Zeng, Jun-hua Hu, Jian-da Zhou
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidade de São Paulo 2014-06-01
Series:Revista Latino-Americana de Enfermagem
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-11692014000300364&lng=en&tlng=en
Description
Summary:OBJECTIVES: to investigate the quality of life and the associated factors on left behind elderly in rural China.METHOD: the research was conducted cluster sampling to select 456 elderly left behind when family members migrated out of rural China to participate in a cross-sectional study by completing a general data questionnaire and Quality of Life questionnaire.RESULTS: 91.5% of the elderly requested psychological counseling and education. For the elderly, scores for mental health (39.56±13.73) were significantly lower compared with Chinese standard data (61.6±13.7) (P<0.001). Age, chronic disease type, gender, residence pattern and economic support from children were the main psychological factors influencing this population.CONCLUSION: mental health is the most important factor influencing quality of life of elderly left behind when family members migrated out of rural China. Our study suggested a need to widely establish a general practitioner team for psychological intervention for improving rural elderly people's Quality of Life level, especially in the psychological domain.
ISSN:1518-8345