Tiet Hanh Dao Tran Thesis
STRESSFUL LIFE EVENTS, MODIFIABLE LIFESTYLE FACTORS, DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS, HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE, AND CHRONIC DISEASE AMONG OLDER WOMEN IN VIETNAM AND AUSTRALIA: A CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON Dao Tran Tiet Hanh BNS, BA, MNS, MAppSc. (research) Prof. Helen Edwards Dr. Charrlotte Seib Prof. Debra Anderson Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Nursing Faculty of Health Queensland University of Technology 2017 Keywords Australia Chronic disease: Hypertension, Coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, Stroke, Arthritis, Osteoporosis, Breast cancer, Depression Cross-cultural comparison Depressive symptoms Diet: Vegetable consumption, fruit consumption Exercise Health-related quality of life Mental health Modifiable lifestyle factors: Vegetable and fruit consumption, smoking, alcohol and caffeine drinking, physical activity level, exercise, body max index Older women Perceived stress Physical activity Physical health Sleeping disturbance Social support Stressful life events Structural Equation Modelling Vietnam i Abstract There has been a dramatic increase in the number of older people all over the world. Older people usually experience lower health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and an increased number of chronic conditions than those in younger age groups. Among older people, women appear to be more vulnerable to stress, to have different lifestyles, lower HRQOL and higher risk for certain chronic conditions than men. These areas need more concern in healthcare. Exposure to stressful life events (SLEs) contributes to changes in lifestyle, to the development of depressive symptoms, and consequently to decreased health. This pattern has been investigated in several populations, including older Australian women, but few studies have modelled the impact of SLEs on health.
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