Publication Date:
2018-07-12
Description:
IJERPH, Vol. 15, Pages 1468: Loneliness and Health Service Utilization among the Rural Elderly in Shandong, China: A Cross-Sectional Study International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health doi: 10.3390/ijerph15071468 Authors: Jiao Zhang Lingzhong Xu Jiajia Li Long Sun Gan Ding Wenzhe Qin Qian Wang Jing Zhu Zihang Yu Su Xie Objectives: To examine the prevalence of loneliness and to explore the association between loneliness and health service utilization among the rural elderly in Shandong Province, China. Methods: A total of 5514 rural people aged 60 and above from Shandong Province, China, were enrolled in this study. Loneliness was used as a binary variable based on a single-item question. Health service utilization was measured by recent two-week physician visits and annual hospitalizations rates. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association between loneliness and health service utilization. Results: The prevalence of loneliness among the rural elderly in Shandong, China, was 25.0%. Loneliness was associated with higher rates of recent two-week physician visits (OR = 1.260, p < 0.01) and annual hospitalizations (OR = 1.183, p < 0.05). The regression results also showed that self-rated health status and chronic conditions were significant and positively associated with both physician visits and hospitalizations rates. Conclusions: Loneliness had a significant association with higher odds of health service utilization among the elderly. The independent contribution of loneliness on health service utilization was smaller than self-rated health status and chronic conditions. Thus, healthcare policies need to shift from an emphasis on controlling health utilization and cost to a greater focus on enabling lonely older people to get more social support.
Print ISSN:
1661-7827
Electronic ISSN:
1660-4601
Topics:
Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
,
Medicine
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