Huijie Zhu, Haojun Jiang, Zhiping Zhu, Zhaoyu Yao
College of Humanities and Social Development, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.
Center for Social Research, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.
Front Public Health. 2024 Apr 18;12:1338079. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1338079. eCollection 2024.
The association between the residential environment and emotional wellbeing (EWB) in older adults has received extensive attention from gerontologists, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the mediating mechanism of how residential environment affects emotional wellbeing has not been fully explored. This study examined the effects of the residential environment on EWB and the mediating role of health lifestyle.
This study analyzed the survey data of 493 rural and 515 urban older adults from 2021 Chinese General Social Survey. General linear regression and structural equation models were used to examine the effects of residential environment and health lifestyle.
Urban participants exhibited clear advantages in EWB, residential environment, and physical activity. Residential environment significantly affected the EWB of older adults, and health lifestyle played a mediating role in this relationship. The residential environment and health lifestyle did not significantly affect EWB in rural participants.
This study revealed differences in the effects of health lifestyles and residential environments on EWB among older adults in rural and urban settings in China. This study provided empirical evidence of mental health disparities between older rural and urban Chinese residents.
老年人的居住环境与情绪健康（EWB）之间的关联已受到老年医学专家的广泛关注，尤其是在新冠疫情期间；然而，居住环境如何影响情绪健康的中介机制尚未得到充分探索。本研究考察了居住环境对情绪健康的影响以及健康生活方式的中介作用。
本研究分析了2021年中国综合社会调查中493名农村老年人和515名城市老年人的调查数据。采用一般线性回归和结构方程模型来考察居住环境和健康生活方式的影响。
城市参与者在情绪健康、居住环境和身体活动方面表现出明显优势。居住环境显著影响老年人的情绪健康，健康生活方式在这种关系中起中介作用。居住环境和健康生活方式对农村参与者的情绪健康没有显著影响。
本研究揭示了中国农村和城市老年人中健康生活方式和居住环境对情绪健康影响的差异。本研究为中国农村和城市老年居民心理健康差异提供了实证证据。
