The Prevalence of Perceived Stress among U.S. Chinese Older Adults

Manrui Zhang; Melissa A. Simon; Xinqi Dong

doi:10.3934/medsci.2014.1.40

AIMS Medical Science, 2014, 1(1): 40-56. doi: 10.3934/medsci.2014.1.40. Research article Special Issues

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The Prevalence of Perceived Stress among U.S. Chinese Older Adults

Manrui Zhang, Melissa A. Simon, Xinqi Dong

1 Rush Institute for Healthy Aging, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL 60701, USA;
2 Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60701, USA

Received date: , Accepted date: , Published date:

Special Issues: The Population Study of Chinese Elderly-PINE Study

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Background: Perceived stress is an important indicator of well-being. However, we have limited understanding of the experience of stress in minority aging populations. Methods: This study aims to identify the stress level among U.S. Chinese older adults. Results: Our findings indicated that 74% of PINE participants have experienced some level of daily stress. Of the 10-items in the stress scale, the prevalence of individual items ranged from 11.4% to 31.8%. Higher levels of perceived stress were more likely to present among older adults with an older age, female gender, lower education and income level, and poorer health status and quality of life. Participants with zero years of education showed the highest level of perceived stress, with a mean score of 12.2. Conclusions: This study indicates that Chinese older adults in the U.S are experiencing stress in their daily lives. Future longitudinal studies are needed to improve the understanding of risk factors and outcomes associated with perceived stress in Chinese older adults.

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Keywords: population studies; older adults; perceived stress; Chinese aging population

Citation: Manrui Zhang, Melissa A. Simon, Xinqi Dong. The Prevalence of Perceived Stress among U.S. Chinese Older Adults. AIMS Medical Science, 2014, 1(1): 40-56. doi: 10.3934/medsci.2014.1.40

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Copyright Info: 2014, Xinqi Dong, et al., licensee AIMS Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licese (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)

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