노인의 건강행위 수행 실태와 이에 영향을 미치는 요인 = Health promoting behaviors and factors contributing health practice of Korean urban elderly

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

One hundred and seventy four community residing elderly subjects were interviewed in order to explore their subjective view of health promoting behaviors.
The results of study were as below:
Subjects considered it healthy behavior, such as, balanced rest and exercise(44.8%), balanced diet(12.6%), happy mind (13.2%), frequent outings (9.2%), hard working(5.7%), and good communication with others(1.7%).
Subjects considered it ill-health behaviors, such as, consumption of alcohol and smoking (25.9%), psychological stress (21.8%), and isolated life style (5.7%).
They were practicing walking and exercise(56.3%), regular and small meals(23.7%), and drinking spring water (1.5%) for their health. There were 58.7% of subjects who newly started something for their health. The new health behaviors were exercise, herbal medicine, massage, accupuncture and etc. In their diet, they included vitamins and health foods(19.5%), vegetables(4.6%), dairy products(2.4%) for their health. And they avoided alcohol and cigaretts (32.1%), animal fat diet(17.6%), instant food (8.8%), and spicy food(9.8%).
Subjects identified importance of psychological factors in health, but they rarely practice anything for psychological health.
Majority(66.9%) of elderly were afraid of loss of health because it will cause loss of mobility(12.4%), hardship for their children (11.8%), needing caregiver(2.9%) and causing isolation(1.2%). The younger(p=.01), the more educated(p=.05), the healthier(p=.03) subjects practiced more health behavior according to chisquare analysis.
Major findings of this study were that Korean elderlies are willing to change their health habits, and their health practices are heavily relied on culturally based traditional health practice.