• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.119-129
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• 2020

Purpose: The aim of this qualitative study is to explore the health problems and coping experiences of middle-aged and elderly women in the community. Methods: A total of five focus group interviews were conducted with three groups of middle-aged and two groups of elderly women. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. Data were analyzed using the content analysis method. Results: Health problems were categorized as confusion caused by problems that are difficult to handle alone in the middle-aged group and suffering originated by confronting changes in roles and environment in the elderly group. The health problems included stress, suffering, anxiety and social withdrawal as subcategories for the middle-aged women, and the stress, sense of loss, fear, and limited social activities caused by their life events for the elderly women. Meanwhile, the contents of categories about coping were revealed as the beginning of care for the body and mind for healthy life in the middle-aged group and active practice with insight into a healthy lifestyle in the elderly group. While the middle-aged women focused on themselves, attempted changes and started to take care of themselves, the elderly women interacted with the outside world, hardened their mind, made efforts for a dignified death, and managed health by their own methods. Conclusion: There were differences in the experiences of middle-aged and elderly women in accepting their health problems and coping. Nursing interventions reflecting these findings can help to manage and promote the health of middle-aged and elderly women based on an integrated perspective.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.27-37
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• 2005

Purpose: This study compared climacteric symptoms, knowledge of menopause and menopausal management of middle aged women living in urban and rural areas. Method: The study subjects included 287 women aged 40-64 years in P city and G town. The instruments used in this study were a climacteric symptoms scale and knowledge of menopause and a menopausal management scale. Data was analyzed with SPSS Win 10.0. Result: The mean age of middle-aged women living in urban areas was 47.9 years and that of women in rural areas was 48.0 years. The mean score of the climacteric symptoms of middle-aged women living in urban and rural areas was 48.8 and 50.4 respectively, and was not significantly different. The mean score of the knowledge of menopause of middle-aged women living in urban areas was higher than that of women in rural areas (p=.017). In addition, the mean score of the menopausal management of middle-aged women living in rural areas was higher than that of women in urban areas. Conclusion: This study suggests that not only general characteristics but also living areas should be considered in developing nursing interventions to manage the climacteric symptoms of middle aged women.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.30 no.11 s.158
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• pp.1507-1518
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• 2006

The middle-aged body differs from the youthful body and has its own body type due to the considerable difference in body structure by age. However, most ready-made clothes for middle-aged women are designed according to the youthful body types. They are looking for the better fitness of the ready-made clothes. Thus clothing fitness is strongly required for a middle-aged women. The purpose of this study is to analyze the basic characteristics of middle-aged women's body types and to compare the real somatotype and cognitive somatotype. The subjects are 238 middle-aged women between 35 and 49 years old living in Daegu. Data are collected through anthropometric measurement and questionnaire on somatotype from September to October 2004. The results are as follows: 1. Using factor analysis, cluster analysis is carried out and the subjects of this research are classified into 4 groups. 2. Middle-aged women usually are not satisfied with their body. Particularly, they show the lowest satisfaction measurement about their abdominal girth, weight, and overall body-shape in total 16 categories. 3. As a result of body cathexis for each part, women are usually not satisfied with their body parts for themselves, regardless of real somatotype. 4. As I divide middle-aged women's somatotype by Rohrer index into the groups of three body-types, then examine real somatotype and cognitive somatotype, I get the following result : The slimmer their bodies are, the more satisfied middle-aged women we. Besides, 40.3% of middle-aged women have an incorrect and distorted understanding of their somatotype. 5. As a result of this research for ideal state of body-size, the women shows their Ideal sizes as follow: 160.55cm for ideal height, 88.73cm for ideal bust girth, 71.14cm for ideal waist girth, 90.03cm for ideal hip girth, and 53kg for ideal weight.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.201-210
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• 2007

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to (a) explore the prevalence of sleep patterns of middle-aged women; (b) identify the relationship between subjective sleep quality and its related variables; and (c) predict the possible explanations of how the related factors affect subjective sleep quality of middle-aged women. Methods: A total of 256 women aged 40-60 years were purposely sampled and given self-administered questionnaires in a cross-sectional, correlation coefficient design. The data was analysed using t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and stepwise multiple regression. Results: The results were as follows; (a) a total of 40% of the women were poor sleepers as defined by a global PSQI score >5; (b) there were significant differences in quality of sleep related to type of family, number of present illnesses, and use of medication; (c) health promoting behaviors, family functioning, depression, and climacteric symptoms were significantly related to subjective sleep quality; and (d) 34% of variance in subjective sleep quality can be explained by climacteric symptoms, depression, type of family, and spouse. Conclusions: Our findings suggested a high proportion of poor sleeping in middle-aged women. Poor sleeping appeared to have poor health promoting behaviors, lower family functioning, worse depression, and higher climacteric symptoms. Climacteric symptoms, depression, type of family, and spouse were independent risk factors for poor sleeping. Nurse professionals should screen for sleep problems in middle-aged women with a biopsychosocial and behavioral aspect.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.732-738
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• 1999

This study was performed to investigate the risk factors for coronary heart disease in elderly women. Seventy five elderly women over 65 years of age participated with 35 elderly men over 65 years of age, 40 middle-aged men and 31 middle-aged women as control subjects. The percentage of body fat(34.1 5.6%) in elderly women found to be significantly higher than in other groups and their waist/hip circumference ratio(WHR) was higher than in middle-aged women. The concentrations of plasma total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol in elderly women were higher than in other groups, TG concentration higher than in middle aged women and HDL-cholesterol % lower than in other groups. Plasma cholesterol ester transfer protein(CETP) activities of elderly women were significantly higher than in middle-aged subjects, but were not different from those of elderly men. Plasma Apolipoprotein(Apo) A-I level in elderly women was higher than in middle-aged men but not different from the other groups. Differences among groups were not great in Lipoprotein (Lp)(a)levels. CETP activities were significantly correlated with age, body fat % total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and Lp(a). Therefore, it appears that the increased risk of coronary heart disease in elderly women is due to the increase of body fat, central adipose distribution, serum total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and CETP activities.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.163-176
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• 1996

This study explores the overall social activities of the middle-aged women. The middle-aged married women of this study are the 40-59 years old and having youngest child above 10 years. Their social activities are categorized into work activities leisure avtivities social network with kin friends and neighbors and religious activities. The results are summarized as follows: (1) The work activities of he middle-aged married women are characterized by stable employment preparation of reentry to the job worries of unemployment and preparation of retirement(2) The leisure activities of the middle-aged married women are devided into two styles; family oriented activities and self developing activities. (3) In social networks especially the social relation with neighbor are increased and the relation with kinship tends to be bilineages. (4) Their religious activities are more supported by families than other activities. From he result this study suggests that : (1) The middle-aged m rried women might accept their midlife as a developmental stage. (2) The volunteer activities might be extended throughout the social activities (3) New social education programs for helping women's growth might be developed.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.45-52
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• 1968

Maximal oxygen uptake was measured in twenty-eight middle-aged men aged 45.0 (range: 40.3-50.7) years and fourteen middle-aged women aged 40.5 (range: 34.3-47.5) years by means of a treadmill test. The physique of subjects were:mean skinfold thickness at 4 sites, namely, back, arm, waist and abdomen was 7.59 mm in men and 14.5 mm in women; total body fat estimated from the mean skinfold thickness, 11.9% fat in men and 25.5% fat in women. The detailed observations are as follows: 1. Maximal oxygen uptake expressed on any reference unit in men was greater than that of women. The values of men to women were: 2.61 to 1.92l/min., 45.1 to 37.0 ml/min./kg, 51.8 to 46.5 ml/min./kg lean body mass (LBM), 15.7 to 12.6 ml/min./cm body height. 2. Maximal pulmonary ventilation in men was 80.2 l/min. and 63.5 l/min. in women. 3. There was a correlation of fairly high degree between maximal oxygen uptake and body weight, namely, r=0.56 in men and r=0.79 in women. The correlation between maximal oxygen uptake and lean body mass also was fairly high, namely, r=0.58 in men and r=0.69 in women. 4. The correlation between maximal pulmonary ventilation and body weight or lean body mass was r=0.51 and r=0.25 in middle-aged men and r=0.41 and r=0.19 in middle-aged women, respectively. 5. Maximal heart rate in men was 176.4 beat/min. and it was 183.9 beat/min. in women. 6. Maximal oxygen pulse in men was 14.6 ml/beat and 9.5 ml/beat in women. 7. Aerobic work capacity of korean middle-aged men and women maintained the same level as that of young men and women, respectively, as shown by maximal oxygen uptake expressed ml/min./kg or ml/min./kg lean body mass.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.391-400
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• 2009

This study was conducted to investigate bone density and food behavior of middle-aged (<65-years-of-age) and oldaged women (${\geq}$65-years-of-age) in the Seoul area of Korea. Average height and weight, body mass index, body fat percentage, and waist-hip ration (WHR) of the middle-aged participants were 158.0 cm, 58.4 kg, 23.3, 29.7%, and 0.88. Corresponding measurements for old-aged participants were 152.6 cm, 56.3 kg, 24.1, 33.1%, and 0.93. T- and Z-scores for middle-aged women were -1.20 and -0.21, and those of old-aged women were -2.02 and -0.49. Osteopenia and osteoporosis percentage of middle- and old-aged women were 41.2% and 14.7%, and 45.2% and 37.1%, respectively. Significant differences were evident concerning between-meal, overeating, exercise, and nutritional supplementation among the two groups. Middle-aged women displayed a positive relationships between bone density and the parameters of height (p<0.05), weight (p<0.05), exercise (p<0.05), consumption of soybean and soybean-processed food (p<0.05), and negative relationships between bone density and the parameters of WHR (p<0.001), consumption of meat and meatprocessed food (p<0.05), and tea drinking (p<0.05). In old-aged women group, positive relationships were evident for bone density and the parameters of height (p<0.05), weight (p<0.05), exercise (p<0.05), nutritional supplementation (p<0.05), and consumption of soybean and soybean-processed food (p<0.05). The results reveal a link between healthy bones and desirable food behavior, indicating the importance of a practical and systematically organized food behavior education program for middle- and old-aged Korean women.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.257-264
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• 2005

Purpose: This study was to examine the effects of Dan Jeon Breathing on physical health promotion in middle aged women. Method: This study was quasi-experimental with a nonequivalent control group pre-post test design. The subjects were classified into an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group had 21 middle-aged women who did Dan Jeon Breathing, the control group consisted of 22 middle aged women. Dan Jeon Breathing was carried out for 40 minutes a day, 3 times a week for 6 weeks. The difference between the experimental group and control group was verified with an $x^2$-test, t-test and paired and unpaired t-test. Results: The score of physical symptoms for the experimental group was lower than that of the control group. The score of physical strength for the experimental group was higher than that of the control group. Conclusion: Dan Jeon Breathing can be a physical health promotion for middle aged women. In terms of nursing practice, Dan Jeon Breathing can be utilized as a nursing intervention for physical well-being of middle aged women.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.213-229
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to examine the heath status and health behavior of middle-aged Korean men and women. Even though there has been increased concern about extremely high mortality rate of Korean middle-aged men and mental health problems of middle aged women, there is a dearth of empirical studies which examine the health status and health behavior of middle-aged men and women in Korea. This study attempts to fill these gaps. Data gathered from 1,667 men and women aged between 30-59 are analyzed to examine the level of physical health, mental health, perceived health and health behavior and to explore the gender and age group differences in these aspects. The results show that there exist gender difference and age group difference in health status: Women are less healthy than men and as age increased health status declined. Women at their 50s are least healthy and most unhappy suggesting age and gender interaction in health status. There exist a gender difference in health behavior: Men have regular check-ups more frequently than women and exercise more. These results are discussed in terms of the gender differences in the experiences, social roles and life styles over the life course.