Living alone, health and preventive care use among the elderly in Shanghai, China

Objective: The purpose of the study was to compare the preventive care use and health between the elderly living alone and living with other individuals and identify strategies to improve the preventive care use among the elderly living alone.Methods: A questionnaire including socioeconomic characteristics,preventive care use,health status and Social Support Rate Scale was administered to 240 elderly living alone and 244 elderly living with other individuals in Shanghai,China.Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the predictors of preventive care use.Results: The elderly living alone were more likely to be single(never married,divorced,separated and widowed),have lower social support and income,utilize less routine physical check-up and blood glucose screenings,have worse self-reported health and have limitations in IADL compared to the elderly living with other individuals.Women,old age,high education,income and social support and close to medical institutions were positively associated with routine physical check-up among the elderly.Conclusion: Living alone was associated with less preventive care use and worse health.It was important to provide more social support and economic support for the elderly living alone to increase their preventive health care service utilization and improve their health status.