Much of the previous literature has studied the relationship between individual lifestyle factors and the health-related quality of life (HRQOL). However, only a few studies combined them to explore their relative importance to the HRQOL in the elderly. This study assesses the HRQOL of the urban, rural, and institutionalized Chinese elderly and explores the relative contributions of different lifestyle factors to their HRQOL. The SF-36v2 Health Survey, the WHOQOL-OLD module, and the socio-demographic and lifestyle questionnaire were utilized in this study. Hierarchical regression was performed in order to analyze the results. The physical and mental component scores of the SF-36v2 survey were 47.05 ± 9.95 and 54.92 ± 9.92, respectively. The total score for the WHOQOL-OLD module was 73.01 ± 11.99, with institutionalized persons reporting lower scores. For the physical component of the elderly participants' HRQOL, the R² value changed the most (0.116) when exercise-and-labor-related factors were added in. For the mental component, sleep-related (0.054), and leisure-time-activity-related factors (0.053) caused the largest change of the R² value. For the elderly-specific HRQOL, measured by the WHOQOL-OLD module, the leisure-time-activity-related factors caused the largest change in the R² value (0.119), followed by exercise-and-labor-related factors (0.078). Heterogeneity was present among the three subgroups. In sum, compared with their community-dwelling counterparts, the HRQOL of institutionalized older people was relatively poor and different lifestyle factors contributed to the HRQOL differently.
Keywords: health-related quality of life; hierarchical regression; lifestyle; older people; the SF-36v2 Health Survey; the WHOQOL-OLD module.