To provide the data for the health and welfare program planning for the aged, 3,631 residents of the Nam Gu in Taegu city whose age was 65 years or older were randomly sampled and interviewed between December 1982 and February 1983.
Three hundred-sixty of the interviewees (9.9%) had some limitations in activity and the percentage increased as the age increased. The female (10.7%) had a higher rate of the activity limitation than the male (8.3%) but the difference was not statistically significant.
The study population with middle school or higher education (30.1%) had a higher activity limitation rate than the no formal education group (9. 7%) (p＜0.01). However, the past major occupation and religion were not significantly associated with the activity limitation.
Among 360 persons with activity limitation, 310 or 86.1% had no limitation in daily activity within the house but could not go out of the house and the rest were bed-ridden or needed assistance for toilet or feeding. The persons with the limitation in such basic activity as toilet and feeding accounted for 1.4% of the study population.
The interviewees stated that their activity limitation were due to senility without a specific disease in 16.3% of the male and 24.2% in female. The most common disease limiting activity was the cardiovascular disease(40.9%) and followed by the fracture or arthritis (21.4%) and neuralgia (19.2%).
The prevalent chronic illnesses included neuralgia (41.8%), respiratory diseases(bronchial asthma, chronic bronchitis, pulmonary emphysema., etc.) (21.2%), cardiovascular diseases (coronary heart disease, hypertension, stroke, etc.) (13.4%). The percentage of healthy persons without any chronic illness was higher in male (33.9%) than in female (27.9%) (p＜0.05).
The prevalence rate of respiratory diseases was significantly lower among the Protestant (16.5%) than those with no religion (23.5%), and lower among the non-smokers (17.3%) than the smokers (26.7%) (p＜0.01).
The interviewees quited smoking in 9.6% and stopped drinking in 21.4% after chronic Illness had developed.
A higher percentage of the interviewees with respiratory disease (13.8%) and cardiovascular disease (17.1%) quited smoking than those with other diseases (p＜0.001).
Interviewees with cardiovascular diseases stopped drinking (40.4%) more frequently than those with other diseases (p＜0.001).
In view of the association of smoking and drinking with the common chronic illnesses, however, health education should be strengthened to stop smoking and drinking.
Regardless of the activity limitation, over 93% of the study population preferred to stay home with their family and only 3.1% wanted to go to a nursing home.
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