Influence of Education Level on Mental Health and Medical Coping Modes: A Correlation Analysis in the Elderlies

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the influence of education level on mental condition and medical coping modes in the elderlies, which may provide some evidence for mental care in health management. Methods: Clinical Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90) and Medical Coping Modes Questionnaire (MCMQ) were applied to evaluate mental condition of 160 elderlies who were randomly chosen from the outpatients of a hospital in Shenyang. The patients were divided into 2 groups by education levels, highly educated group (n=71) and non-highly educated group (n=89). Scores of the two questionnaires were compared between the 2 groups, and correlation analysis was conducted between symptoms and medical coping modes within either group. Results: Compared with the non-highly educated group, the highly educated group has lower scores on all factors of SCL-90 and higher scores on all factors of MCMQ (P < 0.05). It was showed by the correlation analysis that “confrontation” was positively related to “psychoticism” in non-highly educated group (P < 0.05) but negatively related to “phobic anxiety” in highly educated group (P < 0.05), and “avoidance” was related to no factors of SCL-90 (P > 0.05), and “acceptance/resignation” was positively related to all the 9 factors of SCL-90 (P < 0.05) in non-highly educated group while positively related to 6 factors of SCL-90 (P < 0.05) except for “hostility”, “phobic anxiety” and “psychoticism” (P > 0.05) in highly educated group. Conclusion: Highly education provides elderly people with more positive medical coping modes as well as better mental conditions.