This study was conducted to investigate and to compare the health status of urban and rural elderly in southeastern(=Youngnam province) and southwestern(=Honam province) part of Korea, Physical health status of the elderly was investigated by ①the number of self-reported health problems ② self-rating scores for health status ③ the number of diagnosed diseases ④ ADL social health status by IADL and psychological health status by Life Satisfaction scale developed by Wood and others.
The study subjects were the elderly who lived in Pusan(N=150) and Kwangju(N=150) as urban area and Kyoungnam(N=300) and Chonnam(N=297) province as urual area. The study subjects were sampled in random basis and the data were collected by trained interviewers from Feb. 1 to Mar. 30, 1995. The data was analyzed in SPSS.
The results could be summerized as follows:
1. In the sociodemographic characteristics of the subjects, the urban elderly group was significantly tended to be higher in having religion, occupation, extended family, and practicing regular exercises than the rural elderly group; and the rural elderly group in having spouse, close relatives than the urban group.
2. In the sociodemographic differences between Youngnam and Honam area, Youngnam elderly group was significantly tended to have much more male population, nuclear family than Honam group in urban area, In the rural area, the elderly group of Honam was significantly tended to have much more male population, irreligious group, occupation, spouse and nuclear family than those of Youngnam area.
3. In the elderly health status, the numbers of self-reported health problems(headaches, dental problems, respiratory symptoms etc.), of diagnosed.
Diseases(DM, neuralgia, arthritis etc.) and the scores of ADL were significantly tended to be higher in rural area; and the self-rating scores for health status in urban area.
4. In the differences in health status between Youngnam and Honam area, the scores in social(IADL) and psychological(life satisfaction) health status were significantly tended to be higher in Youngnam urban elderly group; and the numbers of self-reported and diagnosed health problems, and the scores of ADL in Honam rural elderly group than those of opposite areas. But the overall scores about their health status were significantly tended to be more affirmative or positive in urban and Youngnam area than those of rural and Honam area.
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