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.