The Role of Social Support in the Association Between Dependency and the Important Risk Factors Among Elderly: A Cross-sectional Study Based on Baseline Data From Aehrr Project

Background: Dependence is a common mental disorder among the elderly increases with increasing age，and can lead to serious health problems. This study aimed to assess the association between social resources and dependency, and explored the effect of social support on modification of important risk factors for dependency among elderly. Method: The present study was a population-based cross-sectional study. A total of 950 participants aged ≥ 60 years were selected using a complex multistage sampling design from 22 locations in China. All data were collected using questionnaires by face-to-face interviews. The dependency was assessed using the standardized Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-II, and the social resource was assessed using the questionnaires of Older American Resources and Services (OARS) in Chinese version. The logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between dependency and social resources. The analysis of covariance was performed to evaluate the effect of social support on modification of important risk factors for dependency. Results: A total of 913 participants were included in the analysis, and 10.3% of males and 14.4% of females were identified as dependency. The results of logistic regression analysis showed that a significant negative association between the levels of social resource and dependency. The odds ratio was 0.78 (95% CI, 0.73–0.84) after adjusting for important confounding factors. The results of analysis of covariance showed the differences in the mean dependency score between different chronic disease status and social support level. Conclusion: The levels of social resources were negatively associated with dependency. Our results suggest that the social support had both a direct effect on dependency and an indirect effect through modifying chronic disease status and individual income.