This study was carried out to find out general characteristics and health-related behaviors of elders aged 65 or over and factors related to their activities of daily living, and thus to contribute to their health maintenance and promotion.
The subjects were 182 elders who had resided at Woelyoung-1 dong, Masan-city and participated in this study voluntarily. To collect data for the study, the field survey was conducted from March 2 to April 8, 1994 with a structured questionnaire by trained nurses and the investigator, and physical, clinical and radiological examinations for most of subjects were made of. Univariate and multiple regression methods were employed for data analyses by use of SPSS/PC` program.
The major findings were as follows:
1. 74.2% of the subjects were 65-74 years old, ´while 25.8% were 75 years old or over. 40.7% of them were illiterate, 27.5% could read and write Korean, 26.9% graduated from elementary school, and 4.8% middle school or higher level.2. 1.7% of men and 7.3% of women perceived their current health status as excellent, 44.8% of men and 17.7% of women as good, 51.7% of men and 72.6% of women as fair, and 1.7% of men and 2.4% of women as poor. In general elderly men perceived their health status better than elderly women. Among the subjects, 55.2% of men and 70.2% of women reported that they experienced one or more illnesses during the last year.
3. 55.2% of men and 30.6% of women were current smokers. 53.1% of current male smokers smoked 11-20 cigarettes per day and 60.5% of current female smokers smoked less than 10 cigarettes per day.
4. 58.6% of men and 25% of women drank alcohol currently. 79.4% of current male drinkers and 38.7% of current female drinkers drank once or more per week.
5. 46.6% of men and 25.8% of women practiced regular exercises for their health maintenance and promotion.
6. In general, 39.6% of the subjects needed other´s assistance for doing one or more activities such as doing heavy home work, walking up and down stairs or walking half a mile. And 13.2% of them needed other´s assistance for doing one or more activities such as walking across a small room, bathing, grooming, dressing, eating and getting up. It showed that the more elders´ age increased, the more they needed others´ assistance.
7. Common diseases of the subjects were hypertension, degenerative arthritis, chronic pulmonary disease, diabetes mellitus, chronic renal disease, and cerebrovascular accident in order.
8. Among the factors influencing activities of daily living of the subjects, age, diastolic blood pressure, and serum uric acid, as independent variables, explained 24.7%, 4.0% and 2.2% of required assistances, as a dependent variable, in activates of daily living, respectively.
In conclusion, it is suggested that when health services for elders are planned, it is necessary to consider the findings of this study. And it is also desirable to conduct this type of studies in-depth with a sample cohort.
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