The purpose of this descriptive survey study was to examine the following items.
1) Score distribution of life satisfaction, powerlessness, perceived health status and self-esteem
2) Demographic characteristics and the affection of socioeconomic characterictics to life satisfaction, powerlessness, perceived health status and self-esteem
3) Correlationship between life satisfaction, powerlessness, perceived health status and self-esteem
4) Determining the factors affecting life satisfaction
The subjects were 167 urban elderly people. Data were collected from May to July in 1998 using the questionaires. The data were analyzed by mean, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression with SPSS win 7.5 program.
The results were as follows :
1) The degree of life satisfaction and powerlessness were relatively low with the mean score of 42.4 and 39.79 respectively, and perceived health status and self-esteem were relatively high with the mean score of 3.15 out of 5 and 27.3 respectively.
2) There were no significant differences between demographic characteristics and life satisfaction. Education(F=2.91, p=0.02), previous employment(F=2.23, p=0.03) and marital status(F=3.85, p=0.04) showed significant differences in the relationship between demographic characteristics and powerlessness. Sex(F=6.40, p=0.01), education(F=3.30, p=0.01), marital status(F=7.13, p=0.008) and kinds of living togather(F=3.69, p=0.003) showed significant differences in the relationship between demographic characteristics and perceived health status. There were no significant differences between demographic characteristics and self-esteem.
3) Monthly allowance(F=3.68, p=0.007), participation in social activity(F=5.90, p=0.000) and number of social activities(F=5.27, p=0.000) showed significant differences in the relationship between socioeconomic characteristics and life satisfaction. Monthly allowance(F=3.13, p=0.01) and number of social activities(F=2.7, p=0.02) showed significant differences in the relationship between socioeconomic characteristics and powerlessness. There were no significant differences between socioeconomic characteristics and perceived health status. Montly allowance(F=4.82, p=0.001), particpation in social activity(F=2.90, p=0.02) and number of social activities(F=3.79, p=0.003) showed significant differences in the relationship between socioeconomic characteristics and self-esteem.
4) Powerlessness showed negative corelationship with perceived health staus(r=-0.295, p<0.001), self-esteem(r=-0.463, p<0.001) and life satisfaction(r=-0.514, p<0.001). Perceived health status showed positive correltionship with self-esteem(r=0.312, p<0.001) and life satisfaction (r=0.377, p<0.001). Self-esteem showed positive correlationship with life satisfaction(r=0.652, p<0.001).
5) The predicting variances for life satisfaction in elderly people were self-esteem, powerlessness, participation in social activity and perceived health status. The most influencing factor among the variances was the self-esteem(42.5%) and powerlessness was the second. Both of self-esteem and powerlessness accounted for 48.2% in life satisfaction. The addition of participation of social activity and perceived health status accounted for 52.9% in life satisfaction.
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