The Relationship Between Social Isolation,Poor Nutritional Status And Functional Impairment Among The Community-dwelling Elderly

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study is to analyze the status of social isolation,poor nutritional status and functional impairment among the community-dwelling elderly,and to investigate the relationship between social isolation,poor nutritional status,and functional impairment,which providing scientific reference for community practitioners to develop community home based pension.MethodsFrom March 2017 to August 2017,1097 elderly were selected from community in Shenyang,Dalian,Anshan,Jinzhou of Liaoning province by the convenience samples.The demographic questionnaire,Lubben Social Network Scale 6(LSNS-6),Mini-nutritional Assessment Scale(MNA),and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale(IADL)were used to estimate the general demographic characteristics,social isolation,poor nutritional status and functional impairment,respectively.Descriptive analysis,t test,anova,pearson correlation analysis,regression analysis,bootstrap were used to test the relationship between social isolation,poor nutritional status,and functional impairment by SPSS 21.0 and AMOS21.0.Results1.The participants' mean scores were as follows: social isolation,15.50±4.96;poor nutritional status,23.77±3.73;functional impairment,10.28±3.82.The incidence of social isolation was16.9%,and the incidence of poor nutritional status and functional impairment were 7.9% and 41.3%.2.Age,marital status,cultural level,living style,monthly income and chronic condition have statistically significant difference in social isolation,poor nutritional status,and functional impairment.Gender has statistically significant difference in social isolation only.3.There was negative correlation between the score of IADL and LSNS-6 and MNA(r=-0.64,-0.70;P<0.001),and there was positive correlation between the score of LSNS-6 and MNA(r=0.68,P<0.001).4.The total effect of social isolation on functional impairment is-0.438,the mediating effect is-0.191,the mediating effect to the total effect is 43.61%.Conclusions1.Social isolation of Older adults was in high level,nutritional status was acceptable and functional status was poor.2.Older,widowed,and elderly people with multiple chronic diseases are severely social isolation,poor nutritional status and functional impairment.3.There is significant correlations between social isolation,poor nutritional status and functional impairment in older adults.4.Social isolation and poor nutritional status have significant predictive effect on functional impairment.Poor nutritional status as an intermediary variable between social isolation and functional impairment.5.It is suggested that clinical medical person and public health practitioners pay attention to the nutritional status of the elderly,timely intervention in social isolation,improving the functional decline in the older adults.