The Relationships between Social Determinants of Health and Health-related Quality of Life among the Community-dwelling Elderly

Abstract

Purpose:The purpose of this study was to examine the social determinants of health (SDH) associated with health-related quality of life (HQOL) among the community-dwelling elderly, based on the conceptual framework of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH). Methods: A survey was conducted with 199 elders aged 65 years or older sampled through convenient sampling. Data were collected through face to face interviews by trained interviewers using a structured questionnaire, which included scales of the residential area, social support, sense of community, social network, health behaviors, and HQOL. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and stepwise multivariate regression. Results: Major SDH affecting HQOL included the participants' residential area, sense of community, and health behavior. The HQOL of the elderly residing in the B area with a low rate of basic livelihood security recipients was higher than that of those residing in other areas. Conclusion: CSDH framework was useful to determine the factors associated with HQOL among the community-dwelling elderly. In addition to their health behavior, their sense of community was found to be a SDH of HQOL, indicating the need of health promotion programs tailored to the characteristics of residential areas and strategies to enhance involvement in community activities.

The Effects of Health Behavior and Health Status on Heath-related Quality of Life in Older People: Gender Analysis by using the 2012 Korea Health Panel Data

“…선행연구의 대상자를 살펴보면 일 지역사회 대상 노인 [3], 농촌 지역 노인 [12], 재가노인 [13], 허약노인 [14] [5,[8][9][10]15], 일부 논문은 남성노 인을 대상으로 하였거나 [16], 특성 집단의 여성노인을 대상 …”

Influence of cognitive function and social support on health-related quality of life of elderly men in partial medically underserved rural areas: A cross-sectional study

“…In Yim and Lee's study [10], elderly women accounted for 70.4% of the total respondents, and 29.6% of them had spouses, and among social support, only spouse support affected the quality of life, and there was no effect of other social support variables. Although social support did not have a significant effect on health-related quality of life in Kim et al 's study [14] of community-dwelling elderly, it has been shown to be an important factor affecting quality of life in other studies [2,11,30], so it is necessary to confirm the effect of social support variables on health-related quality of life in elderly men in the future.…”

“…Preceding studies on the health-related quality of life of the elderly were conducted on elderly women in rural areas [12], the elderly in urban areas [13,14], and the elderly using elderly centers [15] in Korea, and these studies mainly deal with the relationship between health behavior, social network, self-efficacy, and the health-related quality of life for elderly women [15], so there is a lack of studies on the health-related quality of life for elderly men. In the preceding studies [2], age-related and health-related quality of life influencing factors were studied, targeting the medically underserved population of elderly men with cognitive function and social support as variables, but it was difficult to find studies targeting elderly men in medically underserved rural areas.…”