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

• Main Authors: Jian-fei Xie (Author), Si-qing Ding (Author), Zhu-qing Zhong (Author), Qi-feng Yi (Author), Sai-nan Zeng (Author), Jun-hua Hu (Author), Jian-da Zhou (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Universidade de São Paulo, 2014-06-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.

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.

Item Description

1518-8345
10.1590/0104-1169.3400.2425