Psychological distress in elderly people is associated with diet, wellbeing, health status, social support and physical functioning- a HUNT3 study

Table 2 Explained variance in psychological distress among elderly > 65 years old

Independent variables	Psychological distress (HADS)
	STEP 1		STEP 2		STEP 3		STEP 4		STEP 5
	Beta	P-value	Beta	P-value	Beta	P-value	Beta	P-value	Beta	P-value
Sociodemographic
Cohabitating (yes = 1)	−.029	.008*	−.015	.181
Sex (male = 1)	−.072	.000*	−.083	.000*	−.078	.000*	−.096	.000*	−.081	.000*
Lifestyle style behaviors
Healthy diet cluster (yes = 1)			−.097	.000*	−.089	.000*	−.075	.000*	−.048	.000*
Smoker					.057	.000*	.073	.000*	.048	.000*
Alcohol consumption (1–8)↓					.044	.000*	.004	.771
I-ADL
Prepare warm meals							−.063	.001*	−.056	.000*
Go out							−.066	.000*	−.025	.080
Do heavier housework							−.076	.000*	.039	.010*
Do the laundry							−.035	.040*	−.023	.148
Pay bills							−.025	.155
Take medicines							−.003	.850
Do the shopping							.024	.249
Do light housework							.030	.088
Take the bus							−.034	.057
Health and wellbeing
Life-satisfaction (0–7) ↓									.297	.000*
Health at the moment (0–4) ↑									-,119	.000*
Social support
SF-8 (0–5) ↓									.101	.000*
Network distrust (1–5) ↑									−.086	.000*
Network welfare (1–5) ↓									.099	.000*
Network united (1–5) ↓									−.001	.928
SCS (friends talk) (yes = 1)									−.036	.013*
SCS (friends support) (yes = 1)									−.008	.570
Adjusted R²	0.07%		0.16%		0.19%		4.8%		24.3%

Multiple linear regression analyses, standardized coefficients = Beta, * p-value < .05
↑ Higher score is better, ↓lower score is better
HADS = Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, SCS = Social Cohesion and Support Index, SF-8 = the Short Form-8 Health Survey, I-ADL = instrumental activities of daily living (Can do the following tasks without help from others)

ISSN: 1471-2318