Social isolation and health-promoting behaviors among older adults living with different health statuses:A cross-sectional study

摘要

Objectives:To describe the characteristics and relationships of social isolation and health promoting behaviors of Chinese older adults with different health statuses.Methods:Totally 485 older adults were recruited.They were divided into three groups based on their health status:healthy group(n=72),group with one disease(n=183)and group with multimorbidity(n=230).Lubben Social Network Scale-6 and Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II were used to measure their social isolation and health-promoting behaviors,respectively.Results:Among the aged with one disease or multimorbidity,30.6%(56/183)and 31.7%(73/230)were socially isolated,respectively,based on the score of the Lubben Social Network Scale-6.The three groups differed significantly in health-promoting behaviors and scores on several subscales.The group with multimorbidity exhibited more social isolation and fewer health-promoting behaviors than other groups.Social isolation was among the factors adversely affecting health-promoting behaviors in older adults.Conclusions:Health care providers should help older adults with multimorbidity preserve the remaining abilities to improve health-promoting behaviors.Meanwhile,it is important to support healthy older adults to increase self-responsibility to achieve healthy aging.