ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1563505
This article is part of the Research TopicUnveiling the Mental Health Impact of Physical Decline in Older Adults: A Holistic ApproachView all articles
Which Factors Affect Anxiety More in Rural Older Adults: A Random Forest-Based Variable Importance Ranking
Provisionally accepted
- Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
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To explore the influencing factors of individual anxiety in rural elderly in China and analyze the relative importance of each factor, so as to provide scientific basis for the development of intervention measures to improve the mental health of rural elderly. The study also aims to improve the well-being and quality of life of elderly. Methods: A multi-stage cluster random sampling was conducted in rural Anhui Province, China from July 2023 to February 2024, involving a total of 1546 elderly people. T test, ANOVA test, multiple linear regression and random forest algorithm were used for analysis.The mean anxiety score among rural elderly was 4.23 5.30, and the detection rate of anxiety was 36.40%. Multiple linear regression results revealed that age, marital status, visual condition, self-rated health, physical examination, consumption of coarse grains, sleep quality, subjective well-being and social support level were the influencing factors of anxiety in the elderly. The results of random forest analysis showed that depression, self-rated health, subjective well-being, sleep quality and visual acuity had great influence on anxiety in the elderly.This study confirmed the influence of multiple factors on the anxiety of rural elderly people. In addition, the study also found that consumption of coarse grains was negatively associated with anxiety in older adults. In order to improve the mental health of the elderly in rural areas, it is recommended to pay more attention to the elderly with depression, poor sleep quality and poor eyesight, and implement multi-dimensional intervention to improve the happiness of the elderly.
Keywords: Elderly, Anxiety, Random forests, Coarse grains consumption, Visual condition
Received: 20 Jan 2025; Accepted: 20 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 汪 and Ding. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hong Ding, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
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