OBJECTIVES: Rural widowed elderly women living alone may face higher risks of depression and loneliness than general elderly people, which will have an impact on their quality of life. This study aims to explore the correlation of depression and loneliness with quality of life among rural widowed elderly women living alone.
METHODS: A two-stage cluster sampling method was used to select 234 rural widowed older women living alone in Longshan county, Xiangxi autonomous prefecture, Hunan Province, and a questionnaire survey was conducted with the General Situation Questionnaire, the Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (GDS-15), the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness Scale-8 (ULS-8), and the 36 Items Short Form Health Survey (SF-36).
RESULTS: The ages of 234 rural widowed older women living alone were (73.29±7.36) years. Among them, 103 (44.0%) women were detected as depressed, 114 (48.7%) were not lonely or mildly lonely, 111 (47.4%) were moderately lonely, and 9 (3.9%) were severely lonely. The total quality of life scores were 63.39±19.70. Depression and loneliness were negatively correlated with quality of life (all<0.001). After adjusting for confounding factors, multiple linear regression analysis showed that age, number of acute and chronic diseases, personal monthly income, depression, and loneliness independently impacted the quality of life among rural widowed older women (all<0.05). P P
CONCLUSIONS: Depression and loneliness can affect the quality of life of rural widowed older women living alone. In healthy aging efforts, the quality of life of these rural widowed older women can be improved by strengthening the management of underlying illnesses, increasing income, and alleviating depression and loneliness.
