Abstract
BackgroundIt is not well clear how psychosocial factors like depressive symptoms, social support affect quality of life in rural elderly in China. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of depressive symptoms in the association between social support and quality of life.MethodsCross-sectional data of 420 rural elderly were taken from four villages in Hangzhou City. They were interviewed with a demographic questionnaire, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) for depression, the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS) for social support, and the short version of World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment (WHOQOL-BREF) for quality of life. Mediation was examined by a nonparametric Bootstrapping method, controlling for socioeconomic variables.ResultsPoor quality of life was associated with low social support and increased depressive symptoms. A significant indirect effect of social support existed through depression in relation to quality of life (ab = 0.0213, 95% CI [0.0071, 0.0421]), accounting for 9.5% of the effect of social support on quality of life. Approximately 4.8% of the variance in QOL was attributable to the indirect effect of social support through depressive symptoms.ConclusionsDepressive symptoms mediated the impact of social support on quality of life among rural older adults.
Highlights
IntroductionThere were approximately 150 million Chinese residents aged 65 years and above in 2017, accounting for 11.4% of China’s total population informed by National Bureau of Statistics in 2018 (http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2 018/indexeh.htm), and more than 70% of the aging population is distributed in rural areas [1]
There were approximately 150 million Chinese residents aged 65 years and above in 2017, accounting for 11.4% of China’s total population informed by National Bureau of Statistics in 2018, and more than 70% of the aging population is distributed in rural areas [1]
The R2med value of 0.0479 was indicates that slightly less than 4.8% of the variance in quality of life (QOL) was attributable to the indirect effect of social support through depressive symptoms
Summary
There were approximately 150 million Chinese residents aged 65 years and above in 2017, accounting for 11.4% of China’s total population informed by National Bureau of Statistics in 2018 (http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2 018/indexeh.htm), and more than 70% of the aging population is distributed in rural areas [1]. As indicated in some studies, QOL of older people in rural China is low [4, 5]. More than 16% of rural elderly people were still in poor health condition and about 12% often felt lonely and majority of them were lacking of entertainment activities [1]. QOL of elderly people is still poor and worry, especially continuing massive rural-to-urban migrations of mostly young adults and leaving more rural elderly in the village. It is not well clear how psychosocial factors like depressive symptoms, social support affect quality of life in rural elderly in China. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of depressive symptoms in the association between social support and quality of life
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