A Study on the Factors Influencing Injury Prevention Practices of the Elderly

노인의 사고예방 실천정도와 그 영향요인에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship among injury prevention practices, health locus of control, and response patterns to HLOC of the elderly. Subjects were 121 healthy elderly. The data had been collected from November 5 to 18 in 2001 and analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation and stepwise multiple regression. Health locus of control and injury prevention practices were measured by using MHLC scale and an instrument created by the researcher on the basis of the results of literature review respectively. The results of this study were as follows: The mean score of injury prevention practices was 2.80 and the mean scores for the health locus of control were internal health locus of control : 17.25, external health locus of control : 16.09, and chance health locus of control : 14.26. The response patterns of the HLOC identified were six types; pure internal, pure powerful others, pure chance, double external, believers in control, and complex control. The 'pure internal' was the largest group(35.5%), and the 'believers in control' was the next(31.4%). The relationship between internal health locus of control and the injury prevention practices of the elderly revealed a significant correlation(r=.215, p=.018). The relationship between external health locus of control and the injury prevention practices of the elderly revealed a significant correlation (r= .208, p=.022). There was significant difference between response patterns of the health locus of control and injury prevention practices(F=2.393, p=.042). There were significant differences between injury prevention practices and general characteristic factors, which were education, family type, administration of medication, injury experience, ADL, and self-directed search for health information. Self-directed search for health information, injury experience, and education explained 16.7% of the variance for injury prevention practices. The above results may be used as the basic data for seeking more efficient way of improving safety of the elderly.