Mediator 9
Social support has been recognized as a crucial role in improving QOL. QOL of elderly people is still poor and worry, especially continuing massive rural-to-urban migrations of mostly young adults and leaving more rural elderly in the village. More than 16% of rural elderly people were still in poor health condition and about 12% often felt lonely and majority of them were lacking of entertainment activities. Older adults in countryside had poorer QOL and lower subjective well-being than the those live in town. As indicated in some studies, QOL of older people in rural China is low. QOL is a multidimensional concept related to an individual’s satisfaction with various aspects of life, such as physical, psychological, social, environmental and general health perceptions. Actually in China, improving the QOL and physical and mental health of the elderly in rural areas is the basic guarantee for achieving the goal of healthy aging and active aging in China. It may also become a major burden to developing countries with high population densities and emerging economies, such as China and India. Increasing life expectancy without improving QOL directly influences health expenditures and has become a key public health issue in the more developed countries. The demographic transition presents challenges to health authorities, especially in terms of the increasing burden of disease and its negative effect on quality of life (QOL) of older adults. As the population ages, the number of rural elderly populations will continue to increase due to the increasing life expectancy. There were approximately 150 million Chinese residents aged 65 years and above in 2017, accounting for 11.4% of China’s total population informed by National Bureau of Statistics in 2018 ( ), and more than 70% of the aging population is distributed in rural areas. Conclusionsĭepressive symptoms mediated the impact of social support on quality of life among rural older adults. Approximately 4.8% of the variance in QOL was attributable to the indirect effect of social support through depressive symptoms.
A significant indirect effect of social support existed through depression in relation to quality of life (ab = 0.0213, 95% CI ), accounting for 9.5% of the effect of social support on quality of life. Poor quality of life was associated with low social support and increased depressive symptoms. Mediation was examined by a nonparametric Bootstrapping method, controlling for socioeconomic variables. They were interviewed with a demographic questionnaire, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) for depression, the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS) for social support, and the short version of World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment (WHOQOL-BREF) for quality of life. MethodsĬross-sectional data of 420 rural elderly were taken from four villages in Hangzhou City. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of depressive symptoms in the association between social support and quality of life.
It is not well clear how psychosocial factors like depressive symptoms, social support affect quality of life in rural elderly in China.