A Survey Research on Family Health Care : Focusing on Married Women in Seoul

가족 건강관리 행위에 관한 조사연구 -서울시내 일부 기혼부인들을 대상으로-

Recently diseases related to personal health habit and lifestyle have become common in modern industrial society. These kinds of diseases can be prevented simply by changing one's lifestyle to be more healthy. As a result of realization our interest in general health has become stronger. The most basic environment for human-being in society is the home. Humans secure their livelihood, physically. mentally, and socially at home. Therefore health care at home is very important. In modern society the responsibility for this task is traditionally given to housewives. The purpose of this study was to measure the degree of the health knowledge, health concern, health behavior and family health care of the married women and to analyze its related factors. The subjects for this study. 1,100 married women who studied at social education institutes and who had children attending an elementary school or a kindergarten, were surveyed with questionnaires. The preliminary survey was carried out from Aug. 7, to Aug. 19, 1995. With complement of questions, the main survey was carried out from Sep. 11, to Sep. 30, 1995. The data was analysed by using the SAS program. The results were as follows. 1. General Characteristics (1) In the individual characteristics of the respondents, the married women aged 30-39 were 54.8%, the average age was 39.8 years old. 33.8% of respondents had 6-10 years of marriage period, and the average marriage period was 14.9 years. Most of them(96.5%) lived with their husband. Those who graduated from college and graduate school were 53.4%. And 68.3% of respondents had no job. (2) In the family characteristics, 69.3% of the married women had 3 or 4 family members and the average family size was 4.1 person. 60.0% of the respondents had 2 children. Most of the respondents(90.9%) had no married children. 84.8% of the respondents lived with their parents. Those who reported that the total family income was more than 2,500,000 won a month were 32.3%. When making the decisions, 68.5% of the married women discussed the family matter with their husband. (3) In the individual characteristics of the respondents, 51.5% answered they were in good health. 61.7% of the married women answered they obtained the health knowledge through mass media. 24.3% of the women answered they had patients in their family in these days. 67.5% of the respondents answered they could generally control their health by themselves. 2. The Health Knowledge, Concern and Behavior. (1) For the health knowledge, the average score was 11.8. The lowest percent of correct answer(27.8%) was in the item about the skin tests for tuberculosis. And the highest percent(97.%) was in the item about taking a rest. (2) For the health concern, the married women had the highest concern about washing hands. But they were indifferent to smoking. (3) For the health behavior, the highest score was in "changing socks and underwear everyday", and the lowest one was in "taking a regular dental examination". 3. The Family Health Care (1) For the family health care, the item of "using a drug with the order of doctor or pharmacist" had the highest grade(4.78), and "consulting with the family physician about the health problem" had the lowest grade(2.03). (2) Older women and the women with a longer period of marriage had the highest level of the family health care(p<0.001). The married women who had 3 children had the highest level of the family health care(p<0.001). Those who had 5 or 6 family member and higher income had the highest level had the high level of the family health care(p<0.01). Women in good health and those who had the health knowledge from health experts had a high level of the family health care. (3) For the correlation of the family health care and other variables, the health behavior showed the highest correlation with family heath care practice(r=0.74) and the second was health concern(r=0.43). The variables which could explain the family health care were health behavior, the health concern and married women's health status(r²=55.87). The most closely associated with family health care was health behavior(r²=54.93)