Disability and Its Influencing Factors among the Elderly in a County, Guangxi Province, China

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to understand the disability status of the elderly residents of a County (Guangxi Province, China) and explore its influencing factors. Methods: Respondents consisted of 2300 elderly people aged 60 and above from three townships in the county we studied. The Activities of Daily Living (ADL) Scale was used to assess the disability of the elderly sample. Chi-square test was applied to compare the disability rate among the elderly with different demographic characteristics. The graph showed the disability rates of ADL, six items of Physical Activities of Daily Living (PADL) and eight items of Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) at different ages. Binary logistic regression was used to analyze the influencing factors of disability rate among the elderly. Results: The disability rates of ADL, PADL, and IADL in the elderly were 43.4%, 11.6%, and 42.4%, respectively. As with the increase in age, the disability rates of ADL, IADL, PADL, and their 14 items gradually increased (p < 0.05), with walking, using the telephone, and using public vehicles having higher disability rates than other items. The influencing factors of ADL disability were gender (OR = 0.579, 95%CI = 0.441–0.759), age (OR = 2.270, 95%CI = 1.867–2.759; OR = 4.719, 95%CI = 2.998–7.429; OR = 6.249, 95%CI = 3.667–10.648), educational level (OR = 2.844, 95%CI = 2.076–3.897; OR = 1.677, 95%CI = 1.246–2.230), and having metabolic syndrome (MetS) (OR = 1.298, 95%CI = 1.044–1.613). Compared with ADL, the influencing factor of PADL disability was gender, whereas that of IADL disability was whether someone had MetS. Conclusions: With age, the possibility of ADL, PADL, and IADL damage in the elderly is higher. Gender, age, educational level, the number of chronic diseases, and whether someone has MetS might be the influencing factors of disability. Interventions should be taken from a variety of sources specific to the content of each entry.

Relationship between Individual Social Capital and Functional Ability among Older People in Anhui Province, China

“…In this study, we found the prevalence rate of functional disability to be 43%, which is consistent with the reported prevalence rate of 43.4% among elderly people aged 60 years and above in Guangxi province, China [9], but higher than the prevalence rate (18%) in Irish elderly people aged 65 and above [35]. This inconsistency may be due to different cultural and historical contexts between two countries as well as different samples and investigation scales.…”

“…The Cronbach's α of the questionnaire was 0.925. The results of this scale in China have been proven reliable and robust [9].…”

“…Most of the previous studies found that lower education [9,11], increased age [10,11], and multimorbidity [3,16,17] were related to poor functional ability. Meanwhile, the role of social capital in elderly health have been noted from multiple studies [22,46].…”

“…Our findings may be of salient relevance for devising more targeted and effective interventions to prevent the onset of functional limitations among community-dwelling older adults. ) found that the prevalence of functional disability among older people ranged from 16.2% in China to 55.7% in India [8].Greater attention has been paid to exploring the correlates concerning the health and well-being of older adults [9]. Previous studies from China and abroad have both found that advanced age [10,11], frailty [12,13], depression [14] underweight or obesity, physical inactivity, a poor self-rated health, less engagement in level social activities, and pain [15] were most commonly associated with the incidence of ADL or IADL disability.…”

Factors Associated with the Acceptance of a Novel Integrated Care Service by Community-Dwelling Elderly in Chongqing, China

“…If no drugs were taken within 3 months, it would be determined as no and valued as "1", otherwise the value would be "0". We applied activities of daily living (ADL) to evaluate whether the participants were disabled [25] . If participants had the ability to independently conduct six activities in their daily life, they were diagnosed as non-disabled, with a value of "1".…”