Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the health status on the quality of life of the rural elderly, and to examine the conditional effect of socialsupport for that influence. 'Quality of life' used in this study was defined by unidimensional approach. The data were collected by conducting individual interviews with 296 rural elderly people aged 60 and the above who were living in one township of Kangwondo, between the time period of October and November 1995. The main findings are as follows: 1. Hierarchical regression analyses were carried out to examine the relative contribution of three set of variables on the quality of life. The first step, which included sociodemographic factors showed that the coefficient of determination (R$^{2}$) was 8% and income was a statisically significant variable. The second step, by adding health related factors, revealed that the R$^{2}$ was increased to 34% by 26% point and the degree of health recognition was the statistically significant variable. The third step, by projecting additionall social support related variables revealed that the R$^{2}$ was 42% 2. The conditional effect of social support was analyzed to examine the influence the health status has on the quality of life. The results are as follows: 1) The IADL and the degree of social contact interacted, resulting in that the higher degree of social contact boosted the stronger effect of IADL. 2) The effect of subjective health recognition on the quality of life is depended upon degree of family ontact. 3) The effect of eyesight on the quality of life is depended upon degree of satisfaction in social relation. The lower the degree of social support was, the bigger the influence of health related variables affecting quality of life became. This study explains that health status is a major factor in predicting the quality of life of the aged. Particularly the subjective health recognition was an important factor as the perception of quality of life.
