Study on the anxiety and its associated factors among elderly living alone in one rural area of Anhui Province

Objective To explore the level and the associated factors of anxiety among the elderly living alone in one rural area of Anhui province, and providing evidence for improving the level of physical and psychological health of the elderly living alone. Methods The residents aged 60 years or over and lived one year or more in rural areas were selected as participants, with cluster sampling in Anhui province. The statistical software SPSS (version 16.0) was used for data analysis. Results Among 695 elderly living alone, there were 153(22.0%) people with anxiety, slight, moderate and severe attack were 123(17.7%), 29(4.2%), 1(0.1%) respectively. Binary Logistic regression analysis showed that marital status, self-rating economic status, quantity of chronic disease, being taken care when being sick, and physical self-maintenance scale (PSMS) were factors influencing the prevalence of anxiety among the rural elderly living alone. Conclusions Among the rural elderly living alone, the prevalence of anxiety was high, marital status, chronic disease, PSMS, etc. were associated with anxiety. Early and effective measures aiming to these identified risk and protective factors should be provided for promoting the physical and psychological health of elderly living alone.