Quality Of Life And Participation Of Social Development In Rural Elders In Anhui Province

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study is to investigate the status of quality of life and participation of social development as well as related factors in rural elders in Anhui province. Meanwhile, the relationship between quality of life and participation of social development is our concern too. In order to provide the foundation and reference for promoting the participation of social development to improve quality of life in rural elderly as well as suggestions and advices for coping successful aging.MethodsIn our study, we used quantitative research and qualitative interview simultaneously. In the stage of quantitative research, multi-stage stratified cluster sampling method was used. 2686 participators from 19 administrative villages were survived by questionnaires. Finally, 2642 questionnaires were collected. The effective rate is 98.4%. General information, health status and status of participation of social development were collected by questionnaires and physical examination. The quality of life and social support were assessed using Short-Form Health Survey(SF-36) and Social Support Rate Scale(SSRS). From qualitative research, 58 older adults in the selected areas were surveyed and 25 persons in charge of aging institutions were connected and talked about. In the stage of qualitative research, the current situation of aging institutions, the need of older adults and barrier of working were collected from older adults and persons in charge of aging institutions. The data were entered using Epi Data3.1 and analyzed with Statistical Product and Service Solution(SPSS) version 16.0. All study variables were performed with a descriptive analysis. Quantitative variables were described as mean ± standard deviation of mean, whereas categorical variables were expressed as frequencies. Binary logistic regression was used for category variables; multiple linear regression analysis was used for continuity variables. Correlation analysis adopted Pearson analysis. In this study, differences with a p value less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.ResultsThe scores of eight subscales of quality of life are presented below. 67.74±25.54, 53.10±49.10, 66.96±25.07, 46.59±18.99, 67.78±15.03, 74.16±17.45, 60.47±48.35 and 70.30±14.72 are observed for subscales those are physical function, role-physical, body pain, general health, vitality, social function, role-emotional and mental health. The total scores of physical health and mental health are 58.60±22.75 and 68.18±18.73 respectively. The results from logistic regression show that gender, age, educational level, marital status, living status, number of children, disposable income and social support are factors associated with quality of life in the rural older adults.The status of rural elders is presented below. There are 1021 elders(38.6%) have no job. The proportion of elders those who haven’t participated volunteer activity is 98.6%. There are 1967(74.5%) elders participated no community activities. The engagement of social and cultural activities is enjoyable and the highest engagement is discussing of family affairs(60.1%). The highest engagement of leisure-time activities is chatting with friends(80.1%). There are 54% older adults connect with friends or relatives one to two times a month and 51.2% close contacts with neighbors. Most elders(65.4%) go outside less than once a week. The results from logistic regression of social participation indicate that old age and higher disposable income associated with lower social participation. However, well health status, high educational level, unmarried status and high social support have a positive relationship with social participation for elders.The correlation analysis shows that participation of social development has positive relationship with quality of life that is high level of participation of social development indicated well quality of life.ConclusionsThe quality of life for rural elders is not very well. The main related factors with quality of life are gender, age, educational level, marital status, health status, and living status, number of children, disposable incomes and social support. The participation of social development is relatively low in rural areas, especially the participation of non-economic activities. Potential factors associated with social participation are age, health status, educational level, and marital status, disposable income and social support. Meanwhile, promotion the participation of social development of rural elders could improve the quality of rural elders.