OCCUPATION AND HEALTH ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (2): 202-207.

• Treatise • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Mediation role of spiritual well-being between subjective social isolation and the presence of meaningless anxiety in rural elderly patients with chronic diseases

JI Wanqian, CHEN Zhe, LI Wei, WANG Donghua()   

  1. Changsha Medical College,Changsha,Hunan 410219,China
  • Received:2025-02-18 Revised:2025-05-03 Online:2026-01-15 Published:2026-02-06

Abstract:

Objective To explore the mediation effect of spiritual well-being between subjective social isolation and the presence of meaningless anxiety in rural elderly patients with chronic diseases. Methods Convenience sampling was used to select 348 elderly patients with chronic diseases from 6 rural areas in Loudi City and Yongzhou City,Hunan Province from July to August 2023 as the research subjects. A self-designed general information survey questionnaire,elderly patients with chronic diseases had meaningless anxiety scale,mental happiness index scale and subjective social isolation scale were used for investigation,and the data were analyzed. Results The total scores of presence of meaningless anxiety in rural elderly patients with chronic diseases,spiritual well-being and subjective social isolation were 39.00(22.25,59.00),(33.04±10.16) and (16.36±2.81)points,respectively. Spiritual well-being was negatively correlation with presence of meaningless anxiety and total subjective social isolation score(r=-0.448,-0.322,both P<0.01).Spiritual well-being had a partial mediating effect between subjective social isolation and presence of meaningless anxiety,accounting for 43.7% of the total effect. Conclusion The presence of meaningless anxiety levels in rural elderly patients with chronic diseases in Hunan Province is at a moderate to low level,negatively correlated with spiritual well-being,and positively correlated with subjective social isolation. Subjective social isolation can not only directly predict the presence of meaningless anxiety,but also indirectly predict the presence of meaningless anxiety through spiritual well-being. Relevant measures can be taken to enhance the spiritual well-being of elderly chronic disease patients in rural areas of Hunan Province,in order to reduce their level of presence of meaningless anxiety and promote their mental health.

Key words: Elderly, Rural areas, Chronic disease, Presence of meaningless anxiety, Spiritual well-being, Subjective social isolation, Mediating effect

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