독거노인의 건강기능상태에 관한 연구 -광주광역시를 중심으로-

A Study on the Functional Health Status of Living-alone Elderly

The degree of nursing service requirement can be determined by functional health status and a predictive explanation for the status on the living-alone elderly is essential to plan home-care nursing intervention. The purpose of this study is to explore the functional health status of living-alone elderly. Especially the main purpose is to contrast the differences of the status between the residential living-alone elderly and institutional living-alone elderly. This study was conducted through the interview by the students of nurse college who were previously trained during the months of Oct. and Nov. 1996. Sample participants located in Tong-Gu and Seo-Gu of Kwangju City. To contrast the functional health status. this study tried to utilize the Activity Inventory(AI). Among the AI's this study adopted the Physical Activity of Daily Living(PADL) and Instrumental Activity of Daily Living(IADL). Results of the study show that the home-care nursing intervention for the living-alone elderly is urgent more for the residential than for the institutional. It seems that the residential living-alone elderly suffer from inability in Physical Activity of Daily Living. As the residential elderly who have some physical lacks prefer the institution. it is recommended to support physical lacks for the institutional. And more mental-emotional support is recommended for the residential living-alone elderly. The degree of the residential's IADL is higher than that of the institutional. It seems that it was caused by the reason that the residential's needs for the minimum level of life is greater than that of the institutional. So the polypharmacy in elderly nursing-home residents must be considered as sigificant.