Study on the quality of life and its related factors for older adults in communities in Beijing, China

Items of SF-36	Age range				F	p

	60–69 (n = 130)	70–79 (n = 91)	80–89 (n = 80)	≥90 (n = 12)
Physical functioning	82.04 ± 26.22	65.77 ± 31.85	41.94 ± 36.09	32.08 ± 31.73	32.709	0.000
Physical role functioning	75.19 ± 38.94	66.48 ± 43.18	65.94 ± 44.52	60.42 ± 44.54	1.336	0.263
Emotional role functioning	85.90 ± 31.02	77.29 ± 36.13	82.08 ± 35.95	94.44 ± 12.97	1.692	0.169
Social role functioning	94.52 ± 21.68	80.08 ± 28.93	72.97 ± 27.16	81.25 ± 20.98	13.236	0.000
Bodily pain	75.53 ± 19.12	73.81 ± 20.24	76.20 ± 21.02	83.58 ± 15.64	0.917	0.433
Vitality	74.50 ± 18.21	72.86 ± 20.02	74.00 ± 19.78	81.25 ± 12.99	0.715	0.544
Mental health	75.35 ± 18.12	75.25 ± 16.81	76.80 ± 16.23	86.00 ± 13.05	1.540	0.204
General health perceptions	68.17 ± 18.32	64.11 ± 20.89	68.28 ± 18.94	75.58 ± 14.66	1.749	0.157
PCS	49.30 ± 10.17	45.30 ± 11.24	41.20 ± 11.99	38.37 ± 11.51	10.889	0.000
MCS	53.22 ± 10.70	51.66 ± 11.33	54.56 ± 11.56	62.26 ± 4.48	3.691	0.012

Dependent variable	Independent variable	Beta	t	p
PCS	SDS score	−0.379	−7.869	0.000
	Marital status	−0.218	−3.877	0.000
	Age	−0.181	−3.224	0.001
	Adjusted R²			28.7%
MCS	SDS score	−0.517	−10.929	0.000
	Chronic disease	−0.182	−3.863	0.000
	Age	0.131	2.852	0.005
	Adjusted R²			34.7%

Variables	n (%)
Gender
Male	143 (45.7)
Female	170 (54.3)
Marital status
Married	175 (55.9)
Legally separated	3 (1.0)
Divorced	4 (1.3)
Widowed	123 (39.3)
Single	8 (2.5)
Education background
Primary school	103 (32.9)
Middle school	104 (33.2)
High school/technical secondary school	60 (19.2)
College degree	14 (4.5)
Above bachelor degree	32 (10.2)
Occupation
Worker	149 (47.6)
Farmer	46 (14.7)
Teacher	25 (8.0)
Civil servant	13 (4.2)
Technician	42 (13.4)
Other	38 (12.1)
Salary, RMB/month
<3000	188 (60.1)
3000–5000	102 (32.6)
>5000	23 (7.3)
Chronic disease
Yes	177 (56.5)
No	136 (43.5)

Items of SF-36	Mean score (n = 313)	Chinese older adults				U.S. norm¹⁹

		Male (n = 143)	Female (n = 170)	t	p	Male (n = 293)	Female (n = 413)
Physical functioning	65.14 ± 35.23	64.37 ± 37.17	65.79 ± 33.62	−0.356	0.722	65.79 ± 28.31	61.86 ± 28.95
Physical role functioning	69.73 ± 41.94	69.58 ± 42.60	69.85 ± 41.50	−0.057	0.954	59.72 ± 42.51	56.11 ± 42.53
Emotional role functioning	82.75 ± 33.55	84.15 ± 30.85	81.57 ± 35.72	0.677	0.499	76.94 ± 37.48	73.38 ± 39.66
Social role functioning	84.31 ± 26.83	83.92 ± 28.05	84.63 ± 25.84	−0.235	0.814	79.66 ± 26.00	77.00 ± 27.69
Bodily pain	75.51 ± 19.83	77.46 ± 19.56	73.87 ± 19.97	1.600	0.111	68.76 ± 25.37	63.44 ± 27.12
Vitality	74.15 ± 18.98	73.01 ± 19.72	75.12 ± 18.34	−0.980	0.328	57.80 ± 22.55	55.46 ± 23.51
Mental health	76.10 ± 17.16	74.88 ± 18.41	77.13 ± 16.01	−1.156	0.249	77.37 ± 17.42	74.71 ± 19.88
General health perceptions	67.30 ± 19.22	66.44 ± 18.91	68.02 ± 19.49	−0.725	0.469	58.62 ± 22.05	61.64 ± 22.08
PCS	45.65 ± 11.53	45.66 ± 11.80	45.64 ± 11.33	0.017	0.987	/	/
MCS	53.45 ± 11.10	53.23 ± 11.31	53.64 ± 10.94	−0.325	0.746	/	/

Study on the quality of life and its related factors for older adults in communities in Beijing, China^†