Effects of the Health Status and Health Behavior on Health-related Quality of Life of the Elderly Living Alone and Living with Their Families: Using Data from the 2014 Community Health Survey

Kyung-Sook Kim

doi:10.12799/jkachn.2017.28.1.78

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Kim: Effects of the Health Status and Health Behavior on Health-related Quality of Life of the Elderly Living Alone and Living with Their Families: Using Data from the 2014 Community Health Survey

Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing 2017; 28(1): 78-87.

Published online: 31 March 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12799/jkachn.2017.28.1.78

Effects of the Health Status and Health Behavior on Health-related Quality of Life of the Elderly Living Alone and Living with Their Families: Using Data from the 2014 Community Health Survey

Kyung-Sook Kim

Department of Nursing, College of Health Science, Honam University, Korea.

Corresponding author: Kim, Kyung-Sook. Department of Nursing, College of Health Science, Honam University, 417 Eodeung-daero, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju 62399, Korea. Tel: +82-62-940-5525, Fax: +82-62-940-5068, kksmin@hanmail.net

Received 10 February 2017 Revised 16 March 2017 Accepted 23 March 2017

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to identify factors influencing the quality of life of the elderly living alone and living with their families with regard to their health statuses and health behavior experiences.

Methods

We used source data from the 2014 Community Health Survey. The subjects of this study included some elderly people aged 65 and over, and analyzed the data of 13,373 elders living alone and 13,322 elders living with family.

Results

Factors influencing the quality of life of the elderly living alone and living with their families include gender, age, education, household income, current occupation, subjective stress level, depression, number of diagnosed diseases, walking exercise, the experience of health screening, and the experience of not having necessary medical services (p<.001). Region was a significant variable influencing the quality of life of the elderly living with their families (p<.001).

Conclusion

In order to improve the quality of life of the elderly, it is necessary to provide sound conditions for working, emotional support, walking exercise and promotion of health screening, and to supplement the environment and institution for them to receive necessary medical services.

Keywords: Aged, Health status, Health behavior, Quality of life

Figures and Tables

Table 1

General Characteristics of the Subjects (N=26,695)

Characteristics	Categories	Living alone (n=13,373)	Living with family (n=13,322)	x² or t	p
Characteristics	Categories	n (%) or M±SD	n (%) or M±SD	x² or t	p
Gender	Male	1,994 (14.9)	6,466 (48.5)	3,485.72	<.001
Gender	Female	11,379 (85.1)	6,856 (51.5)	3,485.72	<.001
Age (year)	65~69	2,369 (17.7)	4,246 (31.9)	1,051.02	<.001
	70~79	7,245 (54.2)	7,045 (52.9)
	≥80	3,759 (28.1)	2,031 (15.2)
		75.83±6.29	73.13±5.98	35.95	<.001
Education	None	5,539 (41.4)	2,664 (20.0)	1,719.43	<.001
	≤Middle school	6,608 (49.4)	7,883 (59.2)
	≥High school	1,226 (9.2)	2,775 (20.8)
Household income	Low	8,306 (62.1)	2,092 (15.7)	7,937.66	<.001
	Middle low	3,809 (28.5)	4,099 (30.8)
	Middle high	847 (6.3)	3,260 (24.5)
	High	411 (3.1)	3,871 (29.1)
Current occupation	Yes	3,513 (26.3)	5,066 (38.0)	423.05	<.001
Current occupation	No	9,860 (73.7)	8,256 (62.0)	423.05	<.001
Region	Urban	4,066 (30.4)	5,420 (40.7)	307.88	<.001
Region	Rural	9,307 (69.6)	7,902 (59.3)	307.88	<.001

Table 2

Characteristics of the Health Status, the Health Behavior Experience, and the Quality of Life (N=26,695)

Characteristics	Categories	Living alone (n=13,373)	Living with family (n=13,322)	x² or t	p
Characteristics	Categories	n (%) or M±SD	n (%) or M±SD	x² or t	p
Subjective stress	Much	2,923 (21.9)	2,850 (21.4)	79.41	<.001
	A little	5,091 (38.1)	5,743 (43.1)
	Rarely	5,359 (40.1)	4,729 (35.5)
		1.85±0.84	1.89±0.81	−4.01	<.001
Depression	Yes	1,580 (11.8)	1,051 (7.9)	115.76	<.001
Depression	No	11,793 (88.2)	12,271 (92.1)	115.76	<.001
Number of diagnosed disease	None	2,615 (19.6)	3,498 (26.3)	239.36	<.001
	1	4,333 (32.4)	4,513 (33.9)
	2	3,872 (29.0)	3,277 (24.6)
	≥3	2,553 (19.1)	2,034 (15.3)
		1.53±1.12	1.33±1.12	14.38	<.001
Walking/day	Yes	8,899 (66.5)	9,207 (69.1)	20.15	<.001
Walking/day	No	4,474 (33.5)	4,115 (30.9)	20.15	<.001
Health screening	Yes	9,453 (70.7)	10,133 (76.1)	98.68	<.001
Health screening	No	3,920 (29.3)	3,189 (23.9)	98.68	<.001
Cancer screening	Yes	7,737 (57.9)	8,593 (64.5)	124.14	<.001
Cancer screening	No	5,636 (42.1)	4,729 (35.5)	124.14	<.001
Not having necessary medical services	Yes	2,107 (15.8)	1,313 (9.9)	207.96	<.001
Not having necessary medical services	No	11,266 (84.2)	12,009 (90.1)	207.96	<.001
Quality of life		0.78±0.16	0.82±0.16	−21.59	<.001

Table 3

The Level of Quality of Life according to the General Characteristics (N=26,695)

Characteristics	Categories	Living alone (n=13,373)	x² or t or F	p	Living with family (n=13,322)	x² or t or F	p
Characteristics	Categories	M±SD	x² or t or F	p	M±SD	x² or t or F	p
Gender	Male	0.83±0.14	17.56	<.001	0.85±0.14	23.40	<.001
Gender	Female	0.77±0.15	17.56	<.001	0.79±0.15	23.40	<.001
Age (year)	65~69	0.83±0.14	705.28^†	<.001	0.86±0.13	906.88^†	<.001
	70~79	0.78±0.15			0.82±0.15
	≥80	0.74±0.16			0.75±0.18
Education	None	0.75±0.15	701.32^†	<.001	0.76±0.16	1,042.95^†	<.001
	≤middle school	0.79±0.15			0.82±0.15
	≥high school	0.85±0.13			0.88±0.12
Household income	Low	0.76±0.15	661.16^†	<.001	0.77±0.17	455.71^†	<.001
	Middle low	0.81±0.13			0.81±0.15
	Middle high	0.85±0.12			0.84±0.14
	High	0.83±0.13			0.84±0.14
Current occupation	Yes	0.83±0.12	26.00	<.001	0.86±0.11	27.34	<.001
Current occupation	No	0.76±0.16	26.00	<.001	0.80±0.17	27.34	<.001
Region	Urban	0.79±0.15	4.28	<.001	0.83±0.15	6.91	<.001
Region	Rural	0.77±0.15	4.28	<.001	0.81±0.16	6.91	<.001

^†Kruskal-Wallis H test.

Table 4

The Level of Quality of Life according to the Health Status and the Health Behavior Experience (N=26,695)

Characteristics	Categories	Living alone (n=13,373)	x² or t or F	p	Living with family (n=13,322)	x² or t or F	p
Characteristics	Categories	M±SD	x² or t or F	p	M±SD	x² or t or F	p
Subjective stress	Much	0.70±0.17	1,123.68^†	<.001	0.73±0.19	1,182.60^†	<.001
	A little	0.79±0.14			0.84±0.13
	Rarely	0.82±0.13			0.85±0.13
Depression	Yes	0.68±0.18	−23.44	<.001	0.68±0.21	−22.52	<.001
Depression	No	0.79±0.14	−23.44	<.001	0.83±0.14	−22.52	<.001
Number of diagnosed disease	None	0.83±0.14	193.27	<.001	0.86±0.13	837.68^†	<.001
	1	0.79±0.15			0.83±0.14
	2	0.76±0.15			0.80±0.16
	≥3	0.74±0.16			0.76±0.17
Walking/day	Yes	0.81±0.13	−27.87	<.001	0.85±0.12	−27.73	<.001
Walking/day	No	0.73±0.17	−27.87	<.001	0.76±0.19	−27.73	<.001
Health screening	Yes	0.79±0.14	10.83	<.001	0.83±0.14	14.81	<.001
Health screening	No	0.76±0.16	10.83	<.001	0.78±0.18	14.81	<.001
Cancer screening	Yes	0.79±0.14	9.07	<.001	0.83±0.14	13.08	<.001
Cancer screening	No	0.77±0.16	9.07	<.001	0.80±0.17	13.08	<.001
Not having necessary medical services	Yes	0.70±0.16	−26.33	<.001	0.71±0.19	−21.94	<.001
Not having necessary medical services	No	0.79±0.14	−26.33	<.001	0.83±0.14	−21.94	<.001

^†Kruskal-Wallis H test.

Table 5

Factors influencing the Quality of Life

Characteristics	Living alone			Living with family
Characteristics	β	t	p	β	t	p
(Constant)		61.35	<.001		68.37	<.001
Male (female)	0.06	7.20	<.001	0.05	6.06	<.001
Age	−0.13	−15.91	<.001	−0.17	−20.77	<.001
None (high school)	−0.13	−8.90	<.001	−0.11	−10.99	<.001
Middle school (high school)	−0.09	−6.34	<.001	−0.09	−9.62	<.001
Low income (high)	−0.08	−3.70	<.001	−0.06	−7.32	<.001
Middle low income (high)	−0.01	−0.37	.713	−0.04	−4.19	<.001
Middle high income (high)	0.02	1.53	.126	0.00	−0.47	.636
Rural (urban)	−0.01	−0.61	.539	−0.04	−4.71	<.001
Current occupation (none)	0.10	12.13	<.001	0.12	14.55	<.001
Subjective stress level	−0.21	−26.93	<.001	−0.19	−24.75	<.001
Depression (none)	−0.14	−17.64	<.001	−0.15	−20.00	<.001
Number of diagnosed disease	−0.16	−21.22	<.001	−0.16	−22.30	<.001
Walking/day (none)	0.18	23.38	<.001	0.18	25.07	<.001
Health screening experience (none)	0.04	3.81	<.001	0.06	6.40	<.001
Cancer screening experience (none)	0.00	−0.11	.914	0.00	0.32	.748
Having necessary medical services (not having)	0.13	17.27	<.001	0.13	17.50	<.001
	Adj. R²=.30, F=353.72, p<.001			Adj. R²=.34, F=420.04, p<.001

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