School of Nursing, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
Endoscopy Center, The second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Soochow, China.
Int J Nurs Pract. 2022 Aug;28(4):e12947. doi: 10.1111/ijn.12947. Epub 2021 Apr 25.
To explore loneliness, in association with frailty, in explaining the quality of life (QOL) of empty-nest older adults in rural China.
A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted.
Data collection was performed from June to August 2017 in Changchun, the capital city of Jilin province, which consists of seven districts and three counties. In total, 304 older adults aged 60 years and above participated. The characteristics of older adults were evaluated in terms of frailty status, loneliness and the QOL. One-way and two-way analyses of covariance and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves were used to explore the relationships of frailty, loneliness and the QOL.
The one-way ANCOVA showed a significant difference among robust, prefrail and frail participants for loneliness. Moreover, an interaction effect of frailty with loneliness in determining the QOL was found. The receiver operating characteristic curves showed that loneliness and QOL could distinguish frail older adults, and the best cutoffs were 34.5 and 67.4, respectively.
This study demonstrates a close relationship between frailty and loneliness, suggesting the need to simultaneously consider the two with regard to the QOL of empty-nest older adults in rural China.
探讨孤独感与衰弱感在解释中国农村空巢老年人生活质量（QOL）中的作用。
这是一项横断面问卷调查研究。
于 2017 年 6 月至 8 月在吉林省省会长春市进行数据收集，包括 7 个区和 3 个县。共有 304 名 60 岁及以上的老年人参与了研究。采用衰弱状况、孤独感和 QOL 对老年人的特征进行评估。采用单因素协方差分析、双向协方差分析和受试者工作特征曲线下面积来探讨衰弱、孤独感和 QOL 之间的关系。
单因素协方差分析显示，在孤独感方面，健康、衰弱前期和衰弱老年人之间存在显著差异。此外，还发现衰弱与孤独感在确定 QOL 方面存在交互作用。受试者工作特征曲线表明，孤独感和 QOL 可以区分衰弱的老年人，最佳截断值分别为 34.5 和 67.4。
本研究表明衰弱和孤独感之间存在密切关系，提示在评估中国农村空巢老年人的 QOL 时，需要同时考虑这两个因素。
