title: Depression and social support between China' rural and urban empty-nest elderly.
abstract: This study compared levels of depression and social support among empty-nest elderly who living in the rural and urban area of Hunan province, China. This cross-sectional study enrolled 809 empty-nest elderly living throughout the province as the study respondents. The general information, depression conditions and social supports were investigated by using the self-made General Information Questionnaire, Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS). Variables are presented as mean ± standard deviation (SD) or frequency. Independent t-test and χ(2)-tests were used to compare the socio-demographic factors, depression score and social support scores of the rural empty-nest elderly to the urban empty-nest ones; multilevel modeling was used to analyze the socio-demographic factors and social support predicted the level of depression among the empty-nest old subjects. The differences in gender, education level, marital status, economic status, self-perceived income, insurance, children visit frequency and religious beliefs factors between rural and urban empty-nester old people were statistically significant (p<0.05). The average GDS score of rural group was (14.57 ± 5.43), which was higher than the average GDS score (13.18 ± 6.51) of urban group (p<0.01). Objective support scores showed statistical significance between the rural and urban empty-nest elderly (p<0.05). There are differences between rural and urban empty-nest elderly in the aspects of general data, depression status, social support and so on, we should intervene them effectively according to their different characteristics.
authors: Nursing School of Central South University, 172 Tongzi Po Road, Changsha 410013, Hunan, China.
authors: Dan
authors: D
authors: Su
authors: Xian-Ning
authors: XN
authors: Wu
authors: Ying-Xin
authors: YX
authors: Zhang
authors: Hui-Ping
authors: HP
authors: Li
authors: Wei-Li
authors: WL
authors: Wang
authors: Jing-Ping
authors: JP
authors: Zhang
authors: Le-Shan
authors: LS
authors: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*