Demographic Variables, Control, Stress, Support and Health among the Elderly.

This article examines possible psychosocial factors that are expected to influence the health of community elderly people. A probability random sample of 240 Chinese elderly people living in a metropolitan Taiwanese city were interviewed at home. They answered questionnaires including measures for demographic variables (gender, age, marital status and education), locus of control, life stress, perceived social support and various indicators of physical and mental health. Multivariate analyses with structural modeling found that (a) age and education had direct effects on physical health; (b) stress and social support had direct effects on both physical and mental health; (c) control had a direct effect on physical but not mental health; and (d) stress, social support and control were also important mediators in the process of health and adjustment among the elderly people.