Self-perceived Health Status and its Related Factors Among the Elderly

• Main Authors: Yih-Jing Tang, 唐憶淨
• Other Authors: Meng-Chih Lee
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 1999
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/93590058064251540092

碩士 === 中山醫學院 === 醫學研究所 === 87 === ABSTRACT Purpose: To determine senior residents'' self-perceived health status and the related factors including demographics, physical conditions, mental and psychological status, living independence and health services utilization. Material and Method: 472 cases was sampled from 54,219 senior residents registered in Taichung city by a stratified systematic random sampling. Personal interview using questionnaires, scale tests and blood examinations was performed. 20 cases died, 6 cases couldn''t complete, and 446 subjects completed the questionnaire. Result: A majority of the elderly (78.3%) had good or excellent perceived health status, while 21.7%of the elderly had poor self-perceived health status. Univariate analysis indicated the poorer self-perceived health status was associated with female gender, single, less education, lower income, poor visual activity, poor mobility, poor sleep, no exercise, no smoking , no drinking, fall and pain history, having depression and other psychological disorder, higher numbers of chronic diseases and medications, more physician visits, impaired renal function and higher scores of ADLs and IADLs. However, multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that only the following variables were associated independently with poorer self-perceived health: depression, suffering from heart disease or diabetes, physical pain, taking analgesics, more physician visits, impaired ADLs, no exercise, lower income, and no smoking. Conclusion: The self-perceived health status in the elderly was related with bio-psycho-social factors as well as functional disability. The further efforts should focus on the intervention of these factors.