Quality of life of elderly person in aged-care at home and influencing factors in Shanghai Minhang district

Abstract

Objective To understand the quality of life and influencing factors of elderly person in aged-care at home. Methods The elderly person in aged-care at home in 3 towns and a street of Shanghai Minhang District were enrolled by stratified cluster sampling.To investigate quality of life for elderly person by adopting SF-36 form.Meanwhile, to find out the principal influencing factors on quality of life by adopting both single-factor and multiple-factor analysis. Results The score of life quality of senior citizen in local was as following: 43.63±30.04 (Physical Function), 55.57±48.96 (Role Physical), 81.75±20.49 (Bodily Pain), 42.07±18.84 (General Health), 58.57±18.96 (Vitality), 66.94±26.79(Social Function), 73.33±43.33 (Role Emotional), 70.92±19.02 (Mental Health), 61.60±21.06(Weighted average). There were two aspects of the factors that influencing elderly persons' the quality of life: disease-related (coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular accident) and non-disease-related (whether to go out for a walk every day, loneliness, living space, gender and on the current life satisfaction etc). Conclusion Quality of life of elderly person in aged-care at home is relatively low, special in the general health and physical function dimensions. The controllable factors are diseases, whether to go out for a walk every day, loneliness, on the current life satisfaction etc. Key words: Aged-care at Home; Elderly; Quality of life; Influencing factor