Physical Health and Quality of Life among Older People in the Context of Chinese Culture

Lin Zhang, Xinjie Wei, Xueyao Ma and Zhihong Ren
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Lin Zhang: School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430056, China
Xinjie Wei: School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430056, China
Xueyao Ma: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Ulm, Medical Psychology, Frauensteige 6, 89075 Ulm, Germany
Zhihong Ren: School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430056, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 13, 1-11

Abstract: Population aging has become a crucial problem in China. Recently, the Chinese government has adopted many strategies and policies to solve this problem and improve the quality of life of older individuals. The present study aimed to examine the effect of physical health on quality of life among older individuals in the context of Chinese culture and explore the potential mediating roles of positive cognition and negative emotions in the association between physical health and quality of life. Data were from the wave of 2017–2018 of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. Data on physical health, quality of life, positive cognition, and negative emotions of 15,874 older people were included in the present study. Pathway analysis was conducted by using IBM SPSS AMOS 21.0, and double verified using PROCESS Macro for SPSS 3.5.3. Results showed that physical health was positively associated with quality of life among older individuals in the context of Chinese culture. The effect size was small to moderate. Positive cognition and negative emotions independently and serially mediated the linkage of physical health and quality of life. These findings provided empirical evidence for the activating event-belief-consequence theory of emotion and hierarchy of needs theory and indicated that Chinese older people focused more on physical health rather than mental health. Practitioners could teach older individuals strategies of emotion regulation and cognitive appraisal to improve the quality of life of older individuals.

Keywords: physical health; quality of life; positive cognition; negative emotion; serial mediation; older people; Chinese culture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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