Study On The Related Factors Affecting The Life Quality, Social Support Availability And Loneliness In Women Left Behind In Rural Areas

Objective: To investigate the related factors affecting the the quality of life, socialsupport availability and feeling of loneliness in women left behind in rural areas ofWuhu city on the demographic and current situation basis for scientific evidences tosupply this population group with targeted mental health care, mental nursing andpsychosomatic therapy.Methods: By cluster sampling,we conducted the survey on1005women, agedbetween20and55years, living in rural villages of Wuhu city with questionnaires thatincluded demographic information, World Health Organization Quality of LifeQuestionnaire-BREF(WHOQOL-BREF), Social Support Rating Scale(SSRS) andUniversity of California at Los Angels Loneliness Scale(UCLA). Chi-square test wascarried out to compare the quality of life, social support status and lonelinessbetween left-behind women and non-left-behind women, and multiple linear regressionwas performed to analyze the related factors affecting the life quality and availabilityof social support as well as feeling of loneliness.Results:46.5%of the total subjects surveyed in Wuhu area were forced to be leftbehind, primarily to look after their children and attend the elderly(70.1%).82.0%ofthe left-behind women had no sense of the long-distance relationship with theirspouses, and75.5%had no uneasy feeling about the emotional change due to longseparation.91.9%were in stable marriage status, and the wives’ major concern weretheir husbands’ health(68.3%).57.3%kept frequent or occasional relationship with man outside the husband.92.1%insisted that the domestic economy status hadchanged better with their husband working in cities, yet61.3%disapproved of theirspouses away from home to work. No significant statistical differences were seenbetween the left-behind women and non-left-behind group with respect to themarriage bonds, health condition of their own and timely doctors’ office visiting ifthere should be any complaint (P＞0.05). Contrarily, the left-behind women differedstatistically in their counterparts regarding the education level, occupation types,family monthly income by per capita, types of housing, command of the knowledge onhealth care knowledge and related laws and policies, endurance of labor intensity andjob pressure, sense of achievement after fulfillment of a job responsibility, willingnessto work away from home, tasks at busy farming seasons, participation in a women’sfederation or not, and response to violation of rights and interests (P＜0.05).In addition,the two groups were statistically different in major responsibilities except forhousework and sideline agriculture(P＜0.05). The left-behind women scored lower inobjective social support availability than the non-left ones did, and the results were thesame as the life quality as the physiological aspects were considered(P＜0.05),whereas there was no statistical difference between the two groups on the feeling ofloneliness(P>0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis showed linear regression infactors affecting the life quality in environmental and health state aspects, scoring inUCLA, total scores on social support scale, ages and monthly household income by percapita. The linear regression relationship was also existed in between the aspects ofsocial relationship and physical health status and UCLA, scoring on component ofphysical health status, total scores from social support and ages in psychological andphysiological domains besides occupation types, participation in a women’s federationor not, knowledge on relevant national statutory regulations and policies,Educationallevel on the spouses of the left-behind women and UCLA as well as the loneliness andcomponents on life quality, degree of subjective support, the individual’s educational level, spouse’s bonds and utilization of the social support. It further demonstrated alinear regression in the left-behind women in scoring between social supportavailability and UCLA, both environmental and physioloigical domains, assistancedemand when being in trouble and knowledge on relevant national statutoryregulations and policies.Conclusions:Women living apart from their husbands appear general in Wuhu areas,for which we have to give more attention on this population group with their quality oflife, social support availability and feeling of loneliness through establishment ofeffective social support network to better their lives by improving the life quality andmental health levels.