The mediating effect of expectations regarding aging between social support and frailty in elderly patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease / 中国实用护理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the mediating effect of expectations regarding aging between social support and frailty in elderly patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), so as to promote better health education among medical staff and improve patients′ ability to cope with frailty.Methods:This was a cross-sectional study, the convenience sampling method was used to select 258 elderly COPD patients hospitalized in the Department of Respiratory Medicine and Geriatrics of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region People′s Hospital from November 2021 to April 2022. They were investigated by the general information questionnaire, Fried Scale, Social Support Scale and Expectations Regarding Aging-21. Analyzed the correlation among social support, expectations regarding aging and frailty. AMOS 26.0 was used to investigate the mediating effect of expectations regarding aging between social support and frailty in elderly COPD patients.Results:The score of social support, expectations regarding aging and frailty in elderly patients with COPD was (30.45 ± 5.57), (35.25 ± 6.28) and (2.34 ± 1.71)points, respectively. There was negative correlation between social support and frailty in elderly COPD patients ( r=-0.541, P<0.01), while positive correlation between social support and expectations regarding aging ( r=0.477, P<0.01). The negative correlation between social support and expectations regarding aging ( r=-0.536, P<0.01). Expectations regarding aging played a partial mediating role between social support and frailty, with mediating effect value of -0.229, accounting for 35.39% of the total effect. Conclusions:Expectations regarding aging is a mediator variable between social support and frailty in elderly COPD patients. Health care providers can alleviate or even reverse patients' debilitating condition by improving their expectations regarding aging and social support.