Background: Population aging is an inevitable trend and previous studies have showed the relationship between social health related factors and health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) in the elderly. The objective of this study is to investigate the association of social health status with HR-QOL among community-dwelling elderly in Zhejiang.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was based on community-dwelling elderly individuals from July 2018 to September 2018 in Zhejiang, China. HR-QOL was measured by the 12-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12). Social health status was estimated by the long-form of the Social Health Scale for the Elderly (SHSE-L) and classified into three categories (poor, moderate and good). Multivariable linear regression models were conducted to evaluate the association between social health status and HR-QOL (PCS, MCS and SF-12 total score).
Results: A total of 2952 elderly participants were included in this study. The mean age was 70.68 ± 7.75 years (mean ± SD); of the eligible participants, more than half (50.4%) were females; the mean scores were 48.10 ± 8.49, 47.70 ± 7.09 and 47.90 ± 5.86 for PCS, MCS and SF-12 total score, separately. Results from the multivariable models showed that social health status was positively related to HR-QOL after adjusting for covariates. Compared with individuals with a poor social health status, those who had a moderate or good social health status were more likely to report better HR-QOL (for moderate social health status: β = 1.90(95%CI: 1.09, 2.71) for PCS, β = 1.78(1.08, 2.48) for MCS, β = 1.84(1.29, 2.39) for SF-12 total score; for good social health status: β = 3.29(2.24, 4.34) for PCS, β = 3.10(2.12, 4.01) for MCS, β = 3.20(2.48, 3.91) for SF-12 total score).
Conclusion: In our study, we found that social health status was positively associated with HR-QOL among the elderly in Zhejiang. Our findings could provide valuable information for decision-makers to develop interventions to improve the HR-QOL of the elderly.
Keywords: Health-related quality of life; Older people; Social health.