Mental health and related influencing factors among the empty-nest elderly and the non-empty-nest elderly in Taiyuan, China: a cross-sectional study

- A study of mental health among the elderly in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, which is a medium-size city in the north of China.
- A comparison of mental health status between the elderly in Taiyuan and the National norm.
- A comparison of mental health status and related risk factors among the empty-nest elderly and the non-empty-nest elderly.

ObjectiveIn China, elderly make up a large proportion of the society, but their mental health is often overlooked. The aim of this study is to compare mental health and related influencing factors among the empty-nest and the non-empty-nest elderly, and attain the purpose of improving their quality of life.Study designCross-sectional survey.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted among 488 elderly people aged 60-92 years in six districts of Taiyuan, China. A demographic questionnaire and SCL-90-R were employed to collect demographic variables and evaluate mental health, respectively. Multiple regression analysis was performed to estimate factors related to mental health of the elderly.ResultsThe empty-nest elderly were mostly male, married, higher education level, higher income and living in urban areas. The scores of SCL-90-R among the empty-nest elderly were lower than those of the non-empty-nest elderly except for psychoticism. Comparing with scores of national norms, some dimension of SCL-90-R had statistically significant differences. Multiple regression analysis showed that the main risk factors of the empty-nest elderly were gender and income, whereas the main risk factor of the non-empty-nest elderly was chronic diseases.ConclusionThe mental health status of the empty-nest elderly was better than that of the non-empty-nest elderly. Overall mental health of the study population was at a high level compared with national norms. The elderly who were male, with younger age, having higher income, and without chronic diseases had better mental health status.