| Objectives:1. To study the physical health, mental state, and social activities of the elderly outpatients with chronic diseases in Gushan Town, Fuzhou and the relevant factors.2. To study the family burden on caregivers of the elderly outpatients with chronic diseases in Gushan Town, Fuzhou and the influential factors.Methods:1. The elderly outpatients with chronic diseases from the 15 villages and communities of Gushan Town, Fuzhou, were included in the study on the basis of inclusion criteria of the study from August 2007 to November 2007. Their physical and mental health and social activities were studied in the form of intensive and individual investigation by using the cluster sampling method in combination with Activities of Daily Living Scale(ADL),Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale(CES-D)and Self-made Social Activities Scale. Their caregivers were included according to the inclusion criteria and surveyed by using the purposeful sampling method and Family Burden Scale.2. The physical and mental health and social activities of the elderly patients, the family burden on their caregivers, and the related factors were described and analyzed respectively by using descriptive statistics analysis, two sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance, chi-square test, non-parametric test, Spearman,s ranked correlation, logistic regression and multiple linear regression analysis.Results:1. The ADL prevalence was 16.4% in Gushan Town, Fuzhou and the result of logistic regression analysis indicated that age and pathogenetic condition were the influential factors. 2. The prevalence of the depressive symptoms was 17.5% in Gushan Town,Fuzhou and the result of logistic regression analysis showed that gender, age, living condition ( living alone or not ) were the influential factors.3. For the elderly, the three most frequent daily social activities were: watching TV or movie (47.8%), sitting at random (25.2%), and taking care of their family members (15.9%), and the least frequent social activities were: keeping pet birds or crickets/going fishing (93.1%), taking part in political activities (91.6%), attending clubs or social organizations (82.7%). The result of multiple linear regression analysis showed that educational level, age , monthly income, and living condition(living alone or not)were the influential factors.4. 83.5% of the caregivers reported family burden.76.8% of the caregivers reported the economic burden; 52.1% reported the effect on daily life of the family; 40.1% the effect on family entertainment; 36.6% the effect on family atmosphere; 21.5% on family relationship between others relatives, 19.9% on physical health of family members, and 11.8% on mental health of family members. The result of multiple linear regression analysis revealed that monthly medical costs,the elderly's,activities of daily living, depressive symptoms, patho- genetic condition and living condition (living alone or not), and the caregivers, educational level and occupation were the relevant factors.Conclusions:1. There is a self-care decline to varying degrees and high prevalence of depressive symptoms among these elderly outpatients with chronic disease in Gushan Town,Fuzhou. The quality and frequency of their social activities should be improved.2. The family burden on the caregivers was common and multidimensional.3. Implications of the study3.1 The community staff should pay more attention to the physical and mental health of these elderly patients, organizing suitable group social activities for them and encouraging their participation to enrich their spiritual life and improve their life quality.3.2 The community staff should take proper steps to reduce the burden on the caregivers of the elderly patients and to offer caring guidance. 3.3 The society should try to establish a suitable caring mode in which the family and community would work together to provide sufficient care and to better cope with the problems of aging and chronic diseases.
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