1. Interrelationships among common symptoms in the elderly and their effects on health-related quality of life: a cross-sectional study in rural Korea
- Author
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Si-Woo Lee, Kihyun Park, Younghwa Baek, Jong-Hyang Yoo, and Sujeong Mun
- Subjects
Male ,Rural Population ,Cross-sectional study ,Health-related quality of life ,Comorbidity ,Anger ,Logistic regression ,Elderly ,0302 clinical medicine ,Quality of life ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Prevalence ,Medicine ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Fatigue ,Depression (differential diagnoses) ,media_common ,Aged, 80 and over ,Sleep disorder ,Depression ,General Medicine ,Middle Aged ,Indigestion ,Anxiety ,Female ,medicine.symptom ,Sleep Wake Disorders ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Visual analogue scale ,Frail Elderly ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Pain ,Sleep disturbance ,Sleepdisturbance ,03 medical and health sciences ,Internal medicine ,Republic of Korea ,Humans ,Aged ,business.industry ,Research ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,medicine.disease ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Logistic Models ,Socioeconomic Factors ,Quality of Life ,Physical therapy ,business ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
Background Because the world population is aging, it has become increasingly important to focus on and meet the healthcare needs of elderly individuals. This study aims to evaluate the relationships among common symptoms experienced by the elderly, including fatigue, pain, sleep disturbance, indigestion, and depression/anger/anxiety, and to assess how these symptoms affect health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in the elderly population after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics and diagnosed diseases. Methods In a cross-sectional study conducted in 2014 in a rural area of Korea, we extracted data on 1328 elderly individuals aged 60 years or older. Their HRQoL was assessed using the EuroQol Five-Dimension (EQ-5D) questionnaire. The pairwise associations between each symptom and the influence of the symptoms on HRQoL were measured using logistic regression and multiple regression analysis. Results Each symptom was positively correlated with the other symptoms. The strongest association was observed between fatigue and pain (adjusted odds ratio = 8.127), and the weakest correlation was observed between sleep and indigestion (adjusted odds ratio = 2.521). Of the individuals experiencing symptoms other than sleep disturbance, those who reported comorbid symptoms tended to report higher symptom severity and a higher prevalence of symptoms persisting for ≥ 3 days compared with individuals who reported only one symptom. The number of symptoms was significantly correlated with the EQ-5D index (Spearman correlation coefficient = −0.370, p
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