Research On The Impact Of Social Participation On The Quality Of Life Of The Elderly

The “seniors wave” is sweeping in and population aging is a major population problem facing all countries in the 21 st century.With the development of medical technology,average life expectancy has increased,but the problem of “longevity but unhealthy” among the elderly is prominent.The goal of “Healthy Aging” is to improve the quality of life of the elderly,and extend their healthy longevity of the elderly,so that the elderly can enjoy their old age in peace.Social participation is the core content of the active aging strategy.Social participation can help the elderly adapt to old life,alleviate the speed of physical and mental aging,and even develop their human resources.At present,many scholars have studied the relationship between social participation and the health of the elderly.Based on the review of relevant theories and literature,this study explores the influence of social participation on the quality of life of the elderly population and provides a basis for improving the quality of life of the elderly population.This study sorted out the relevant theories of social participation of the elderly,reviewed and commented on the existing research results at home and abroad,and constructed the analysis framework of this study.This study used data from the 2018“China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study”(CHARLS)with a sample size of7064.Meanwhile,51 elderly people were interviewed at Xingguo County Honor Center,Changzheng Community,Shefu Township Health Center,and Wufu Square in August2022 to understand the status of social participation and the quality of life of the elderly.The quality of life of the elderly is measured with EQ-5D five-dimensional scale,and the health utility value of the elderly is calculated by converting the quality of life with the Chinese version of health utility point system.The elderly are divided into different groups according to their characteristics(age,gender,education level,etc.).The differences in social participation and quality of life among different aged groups were further analyzed.Then,t-test and variance analysis were used to analyze the correlation between social participation and the quality of life of the elderly.The OLS regression model was constructed to analyze the influence of overall social participation,different types of social participation,and frequency of social participation on the quality of life of the elderly population.Considering the possible endogeneity of the model,“whether the elderly will have someone to take care of them for a long time in the future” and“whether the elderly have broadband to access the Internet” were selected as instrumental variables.The instrumental variable method is used for 2SLS to obtain more robust results.Through the interview and data analysis,it is found that:(1)the quality of life of the elderly population is average,with a mean health utility value of 0.72.The proportion of difficulties in the pain/discomfort dimension and anxiety/depression dimension is high,and the number of people with moderate difficulties in multiple dimensions is more.(2)The consciousness of social participation of the elderly is low,and the form of participation is not diversified enough.The participation types are mainly interpersonal interaction and cultural,sports and leisure activities.The frequency of social participation of the elderly showed a “U-shaped” trend,with a high proportion of “non-participation” and “almost every day” participation.(3)Social participation can significantly improve the quality of life of the elderly.Compared with the elderly who did not participate,the health utility value of the elderly with participating behaviors was higher,and the proportion of difficulties in the five dimensions of EQ-5D was also significantly reduced.The higher the frequency of social participation of the elderly,the greater the positive impact on the quality of life.(4)There are differences in the effects of the four types of social participation on the quality of life of the elderly.Interpersonal,voluntary,intellectual learning,and cultural,sports and leisure social participation are all effective in improving the quality of life of the elderly,among which voluntary activities have the greatest effect on the quality of life of the elderly,followed by cultural,sports and leisure activities.(5)The effects of social participation types on the quality of life of the elderly have gender and urban-rural heterogeneity.Interpersonal social participation has a greater enhancement effect on the quality of life of males and urban elderly,while cultural,sports and leisure social participation has a greater enhancement effect on the quality of life of females and rural elderly.Based on the results of the study,propose countermeasures to improve the quality of life of the elderly,including improving relevant policies and regulations on social participation of the elderly;strengthening the construction of places and platforms for social participation of the elderly;increasing the publicity of social participation;cultivating the consciousness of social participation of the elderly;enriching the forms of social participation of the elderly;playing the role of social organizations and thirdparty institutions;...