• Korean Public Health Research
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.25-34
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• 2018

Objective : This study aimed to examine the association Self-Rated Health(hereafter SRH) and Activities of Daily Living(hereafter ADL), Independent Activities of Daily Living(hereafter IADL) among Korean elderly. Methods : Using nationally representative cross sectional studies called 2014 Survey of living conditions and welfare needs of Korean elder persons. We used SRH as an independent variable, disabilities of ADL and IADL as dependent variables. Logistic regression was implemented and potential confounders such as socio-economic status, demographic characteristics and others were adjusted. Results : It was revealed that people who were female(than male) and 75 or more years old(than less than 75 years old) were shown to have poor SRH and disabilities of both ADL and IADL. In logistic regression model, poor SRH was associated with ADL and IADL disabilities. Especially, their association was more remarkable among male than among female. It can be understood that socio-economic contexts affect quality of life among elderly and SRH can be differently perceived by gender. Conclusions : Our notable findings showed that gender perspective is needed to understand SRH and daily living among elderly.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.267-290
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• 2011

This research attempts to analyze the effects of demographic factors, socioeconomic factors, health behaviors and social/familial supports on health inequalities among Korean elderly. For this end, this study adopts the multiple linear regression analysis to process data on population aged over 65 contained in 'The Third Korea Welfare Panel Study' published in 2008. The following are the results. First, the less educated they are, the smaller income they earn, the less they drink, the less satisfied with relationships with their family members, the more they turn out to feel depressed. Second, the less educated they are, the smaller income they earn, the less they drink, the less they are satisfied with relationship with family members, the more they benefit from social welfare services, the worse they turn out to rate their health. Based on these findings, three following suggestions could be forwarded. First, vulnerable aged groups including female elderly, low-income elderly, less-educated elderly need customized social supports. Second, new social policy for households is required to enhance elderly people's satisfaction with their family relationships with the rapid trend of a growing number of nuclear families and aging. Third, social welfare service programs need to be reevaluated to enhance their function for the aged.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.553-565
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• 2016

Population aging has been an increasing social issue and the elderly health has become one of the most urgent public attentions in Korea. The aims of this paper are to compare the subjective health status according to the personal characteristics, social networks, and daily leisure activities of the urban-rural elderly, and to analyze the influencing factors of their subjective health status. Using 2011 elderly survey data, ordered logit Model was established to extract influencing factors of the elderly health status. The results show that socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of individual as well as frequent social contacts and daily activities within neighborhood environments influence the level of health status of the elderly. The most significant factors affecting the elderly health are personal economic conditions such as the education achievement level and household income. The elderly who visit an elderly welfare center in Seoul has almost 1.82 times higher odds of increasing health status level than not to visit an elderly welfare center. This study may give some important policy implications of the elderly health promotion strategy in urban-rural communities.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.244-253
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• 2020

This study aimed to assess the factors affecting the level of happiness and a sense of happiness among senior men and women, including sociodemographic characteristics, health behavior, subjective health level, and healthcare utilization, using the 2017 Community Health Survey (CHS). A total of 67,835 older adults were enrolled for the study, 27,979 males and 39,856 females. The results showed that education level and total household income affected the happiness in female elderly, while having a spouse increased happiness in male elderly. In addition, both male elderly and female felt a great of happiness when they had good health behaviors, perceived themselves to be in good health, and had no restrictions with healthcare utilization. Subjective health status and healthcare utilization seem to have a substantial impact on happiness because older adulthood is a period marked with increased physical vulnerability compared to other age groups due to diminished physiological functions. Based on these results, the government should expand subsidies for welfare for the aged to provide lifelong education opportunities and the existing elderly education and programs in health-related organizations should reflect the characteristics of the elderly. Furthermore, social service systems and programs related to the elderly should be re-evaluated so as to develop services and programs tailored to the elderly to promote their happiness more effectively.

• 한국노년학
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.1311-1327
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• 2010

This study was conducted to identify the relationship between depression and subjective/objective health status, and to examine predicting factors on depression in the elderly in Korea. This study was a secondary analysis using the data of Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(VI-1) 2007. A total of 939 data from the subjects ≥60 years who completed health-related survey were used for analysis. Data were analyzed using SAS (version 9.1) PC program. Depression was identified in the 20.3% of the older subjects. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that women (OR=2.04), senior high school graduation (OR=0.27) and lowermiddle household income (OR=2.83) were significant associating factors(p<0.05). After adjustment for socio-demographic factors, hypertension (OR=1.93) and asthma (OR=3.32) as objective health status, and stress (OR=7.27), limited activity in daily living due to fracture or joint injury (OR=6.59) and poor self-rate health (OR=1.64) as subjective health status were found as factors predicting depression in the elderly(p<0.05). According to the type of health status, the subjects who had chronic disease or perceived poor physical health were 5.94 times more likely to have disposition to depression than the subjects who had no chronic disease or perceived good physical health (p=0.001). These findings suggest that preventive education and intervention focus on preventing and managing chronic diseases such as hypertension, asthma, fracture and joint injury should be needed to decrease depression in the elderly.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.420-430
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• 2022

The study attempted a comprehensive assessment of factors affecting health-related quality of life in the young-old and old-old. Data from the Community Health Survey for 5 years from 2015 to 2019 were analyzed. Research Results Health-related quality of life appears to be higher in the elderly than in the late-stage elderly, and various factors such as age, education level, household income, presence or absence of economic activity, presence or absence of moderate physical activity, stress or presence, and subjective health level Has been found to affect health-related quality of life. In particular, good or bad subjective health and subjective oral health had the greatest influence. In terms of the household type, the quality of life was high in young-old adults living in a three-generation household and old-old adults living in a one-generation household. Considering these characteristics, public policy programs should be developed and implemented to help the elderly with successful aging by improving their quality of life.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.616-626
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• 2018

This study aimed to comprehensively assess the demographic characteristics, health behaviors, subjective health status, health-related restriction of life, and quality of life of male and female elderly aged 65 years older using data from the 2013-2015 Korean Community Health Survey (KCHS). The results showed that compared to the male elderly, the female elderly was less educated, did not have a spouse or had less household income, had poorer health behaviors, and had lower quality of life caused by restrictions in life. The female elderly had significantly lower quality of life than that of the male elderly. Various factors were found to affect quality of life in both sexes. The presence of spouse and BMI did not affect quality of life of men but did affect the quality of life of women. On the other hand, smoking affected the quality of life of men but not of women. Based on these results, more in-depth studies are needed on the female elderly, who have been reported to have lower health-related quality of life, and sex-specific services and programs that could more effectively improve the quality of life among the elderly should also be developed.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.39-53
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• 2021

Purpose: This study examined the dietary behavior, health status and nutrient intake by considering the level of household income of elderly people using data obtained from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey (KNHANES VII) 2018. Methods: The study subjects were 1,355 elderly people over 65 years old (558 men, 797 women). Based on their household income, participants were classified into three groups: low-income, middle-income, and high-income. The variables consisted of general characteristics, dietary behavior, health status, health related behavior, and dietary intakes. Dietary data were estimated by the 24-hour dietary recall. Results: In men, the low-income group encompassed older, less educated, less employed, and living with family of first generation. However, in women, there were no differences in employment by the level of income, and women living alone had lower income than subjects living with family. Elderly men in the high-income group had a significantly higher level of nutrient intake (energy, protein, fat, phosphorous, riboflavin, niacin and vitamin C). Men in the low-income group consumed a significantly lower intake of fruits, seaweeds and eggs, including total food. Women in the low-income group had significantly less intake of protein, fat, calcium, phosphorous, iron, vitamin A, riboflavin, and niacin whereas women in the high-income group had significantly higher intake of sugar & sweet, eggs, and beverages, including total food. Conclusion: These results suggest that the level of household income is an important factor that influences food and nutrient intake in the Korean elderly. The socioeconomic status needs to be considered differently among elderly men and women when implementing food assistant programs and designing nutrition education programs.

• 한국노년학
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.729-746
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• 2020

For the development and better use of information and communication technology(ICT) for promoting health and quality of life in older people, it is important to understand personal factors associated with ICT use. The aims of this study were to describe the pattern of ICT use according to health characteristics of elderly and to investigate significant factors related to ICT use among three age groups. The data of 2017 National Survey of Older Koreans was used for analysis and 10,058 of older adults aged 65 and over were included for study participants. As results, first, the young old(65~74) used more functions of ICT than the middle-old(75~84) and the old-old(85 and over). Second, ICT was more used among older people with good conditions in chronic disease, subjective health, cognition, depression, vision, hearing, walking and IADL. Third, higher prevalence of ICT use was significantly associated with age, education, household income, subjective health, depression, cognitive function, vision limitation and walking limitation. Fourth, factors influencing the use of ICT were a little different among three age groups. For the young-old(65~74), subjective health, depression, cognitive decline, walking limitation, and IADL disability were significant factors affecting on ICT use. For the middle-old(75-84), subjective health, depression, cognitive decline, vision, hearing, and walking limitation were related with their ICT use. For the old-old(85 and over), only cognitive function and depression were associated with their ICT use. Based on these results, this study suggested the need to consider multiple health conditions for developing and using ICT for older adults.

• 한국노년학
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.1281-1292
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• 2010

This study was performed to identify older adults' self-reported difficulties in understanding and utilizing health information and their relationships with health status and to investigate the differences between age groups and among education levels. Data were collected from July 1 to August 31 in 2007 from older adults in senior centers located in Daegu, Kyungpook, and Busan area. A total of 103 subjects participated in the study. The level of understanding health information in older adults was 50 on average (possible score 15-75). The most difficult items to understand were patient educational materials, written information provided by health care providers, and medical forms. The lower level of difficulty in utilizing health information was associated with better physical and mental health status. There were differences in their self-reported difficulties between the young-old and the old-old as well as among different education levels. Health care providers may need to tailor educational materials and medical forms to the cognitive ability of older adults under the consideration of their age and education levels.