BackgroundInadequate studies have been conducted in China to examine quality of life in family caregivers. Quality of life in family caregivers for elderly people with chronic diseases was evaluated, and the demographic and characteristic factors of both elderly people and their caregivers were explored.MethodsThe 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) was used to assess health-related quality of life in 407 family caregivers caring for elderly people with chronic diseases in six communities on the Mainland China. The explanatory variables included family caregivers’ demographic and other caregiving variables related to eldercare. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression analysis were used in the data analysis, performed via SPSS 17.0.ResultsMean SF-36 and physical and mental component scores were 66.14 ± 17.50, 70.06 ± 16.49, and 62.22 ± 18.51, respectively. The scores of caregivers’ physical function and bodily pain were significantly higher, while the scores of caregivers’ role limitations due to physical problems, general health, vitality, social function, mental health and role limitations due to emotional problems were significantly lower. Caregivers’ ages, comorbidity, the perceived effects of caregiving on caregivers’ social lives and elderly individuals’ ages, marital status and Activities of Daily Living scores were significantly associated with the physical component score. In addition, caregivers’ age, the affordability of the elderly person’s healthcare expenses, the perceived effects of caregiving on caregivers’ social lives, and elderly people’s marital status and ADL scores were significantly associated with the mental component score.ConclusionFamily caregivers for elderly people with chronic diseases showed poorer mental and better physical well-being. Factors of both elderly people and their caregivers impact the caregivers’ quality of life. These findings highlight the importance of addressing mental health of family caregivers, and of providing economical support and psychological care for them.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12955-016-0504-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Perspective-To investigate the role of different aspects of psychological strain in Chinese rural young suicides, so as to test the strain theory of suicide with the Chinese samples.Method-Psychological Autopsy (PA) was conducted on 105 suicides in rural China. The background and deep reasons for suicide were obtained from in-depth interviews with survivors and close friends. For each suicide, a story is composed out of the provided information, and the stories were content-analyzed with the SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys™.Results-Depression or other mental disorders were observed for less than half of the sampled suicides (42.9%). All suicides (100%) had experienced at least one type of the four strains: conflicting values, aspiration and reality, relative deprivation, and coping deficiency. While 24.9% of all suicides experienced only one type of strains, 36.2% for two strains, 32.4% for three, and only 6.7% of the suicides experienced all the four types of strains. Males are more likely than females to experience aspiration and deprivation strains, and the younger suicides (15-22 years of age) were more likely than the older suicides (23-29 years of age) to experience coping strain.
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