BACKGROUND: Mental health problem is directly correlated with the health and happiness of the elders, and to improve their health level has become a social problem. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the mental health and social support status of the elders in Lishui city. DESIGN: A sample investigation. SETTING: Lishui Center for Disease Prevention and Control.PARTICIPANTS: Totally 137 retirees or honored retirees above 55 years in a community in Liandu district and 136 people above 55 years in a village in Bihu township of Liandu district were taken as the urban and a rural samples respectively in September and October 2003. METHODS: The symptom checklist-90 (SCL-90) and social support rating scale (SSRS) were used. The questionnaires were dispatched, measured and collected by the local physicans in rural area and community cadres in urban area in household anonymously on the spot. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ① Scores of SCL-90 and SSRS in both groups; ② Correlations between social support factors and mental health factors in the elders between urban and rural communities; ③ Comparison of the most common 10 symptoms in SCL-90 between urban and rural elders; ④ Comparison of SCL-90 scores among different age groups and between males and females.RESULTS: Totally 380 questionnaires were sent out, 273 effective ones were collected back, and the collected rate was 71.84%. ① The differences of factor scores in SCL-90 were all significant or markedly significant (P ＜ 0.05-0.01) except that of depression, and all the factor scores in both urban group and rural group were obviously lower than those of national norm (P ＜ 0.01). The differences of subjective support and utilization of support in social support status between the two groups were of marked significance (P ＜ 0.01), whereas the differences of objective support and total scores were not so obvious (P ＞ 0.05). ② The correlation ananlysis between social support and mental health factors in the rural group showed that the utilization of support had no significant correlation with factors of anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation and psychoticism, whereas the other three dimensions and other 10 factors showed significant or very significant correlation. The correlation ananlysis between social support and mental health factors in the urban group showed that there was no significant correlation of objective support with the symptoms of obsession-compulsion and psychoticism, as well as between the utilization of support and the symptom of obsession-compulsion,whereas other dimensions of support showed significant or very significant correlation with other factors. ③ The most common positive symptom with the highest incidence rate was high forgetfulness (79.4%) in the rural group and muscular ache (69.3%) in the rural group, respectively. ④ The scores of interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation and psychoticism were lower in the ≥70 years old group than in the ＜ 70 years old group (P ＜ 0.05-0.01); there were no significnat gender differences (P ＞ 0.05).CONCLUSION: The mental health of the elders in Lishui city is slightly better than that of national norm, and it is better in rural area than in urban area. But the existed mental problems should not be ignored. The mental health status is greatly and directly related with the factor of social support, so the major and important measure to improve the mental health of the elders is to better the environment of social support and take effective psychological interference.

OBJECTIVE To explore the outcomes of CO2 laser assisted stapedotomy with artificial stapes prostheses in the treatment of advanced otosclerosis. METHODS Between January 2010 and January 2014, 15 patients (16 ears) diagnosed as advanced otosclerosis accepted CO2 laser assisted stapedotomy with artificial stapes implantation in our department. The averaged preoperative air conduction threshold of the speech frequency was 70.21 dB HL, the averaged bone conduction threshold was 38.49 dB HL, the averaged air-bone gap (ABG) was 31.72 dB HL. All cases were followed up for more than 6 months after operation. RESULTS All cases accepted auditory follow up after 6 months postoperatively. The speech frequency average air conduction threshold was 43.7 dB HL, the average bone conduction threshold was 28.95 dB HL, the average ABG was 14.75 dB HL. The ABG≤20 dB was achieved in 9 ears (56.3%) and ABG closure (≤10 dB) was achieved in 6 ears (37.5%). No cases appeared intractable vertigo, sensorineural hearing loss, secondary facial paralysis and other serious complications. CONCLUSION CO2 laser assisted technique reduced the probability of serious complications of stapedotomy, most patients with hearing level improved significantly. It's a safe, practical, relatively economical choice for advanced otosclerosis.

Objective : To investigate the knowledge,attitude and practice of salt reduction for hypertension prevention among residents in Liandu District of Lishui,and to provide reference for intervention of salt reduction. Methods : Residents aged 18-69 years in two communities and three towns of Liandu District were selected by multistage stratified random sampling method. They were investigated the prevalence of hypertension and knowledge,attitude and practice of salt reduction for hypertension prevention. Logistic regression models were used to analyze the influencing factors for knowledge,attitude and practice of salt reduction for hypertension prevention. Results : Among 1 801 participants,1 509 completed the survey,with a response rate of 83.79%. The prevalence of hypertension was 31.88%. The proportions of the participants who had knowledge, attitude and practice of salt reduction for hypertension prevention were 33.40%,60.70% and 58.58%,respectively. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that women（OR=1.583,95%CI：1.248-2.008）,hypertension（OR= 1.734,95%CI：1.303-2.308）,30 to 39 years old（OR=0.368,95%CI：0.226-0.597）,junior high school and above education（OR=0.057-0.403,95%CI：0.036-0.577）were the influencing factors for the knowledge of salt reduction for hypertension prevention;women（OR=1.342,95%CI：1.072-1.679）,married（OR=1.582,95%CI：1.167-2.144）,junior or senior high school education（OR=0.235-0.525,95%CI：0.163-0.736）,having the knowledge（OR=2.640,95%CI：2.033-3.430）were the influencing factors for the attitude of salt reduction for hypertension prevention;women（OR=1.632,95%CI：1.304-2.044）,30 to 39 years old（OR=0.494,95%CI：0.346-0.705）,rural residents（OR= 1.617,95%CI：1.276-2.050）,family history of chronic diseases（OR=1.455,95%CI：1.148-1.845）,having the knowledge（OR= 1.396,95%CI：1.084-1.797）,having the attitude（OR=4.059,95%CI：3.203-5.145）were the influencing factor for the practice of salt reduction for hypertension prevention. Conclusion The residents in Liandu District had low levels of the knowledge,attitude and practice of salt reduction for hypertension prevention. The higher levels of the knowledge and attitude of salt reduction for hypertension prevention,the higher level of the practice.