Comparison of Health Status, Dietary Behavior and Nutrient Intakes According to Family Types of the Elderly in Rural Areas

농촌지역 노인에서 동거유형에 따른 건강상태, 식행동 및 영양소 섭취 수준의 변화 양상 비교

This study was conducted to compare of health status, dietary behaviors and nutrient intakes according to family types of the elderly in rural areas. Family types were divided into three types-elderly living alone, elderly living with spouse, and elderly living with spouse and children. Subjects were 119 persons aged over 65 years (34 male, 85 females) living in rural areas and period of survey was from 29 January 2007 to 2 February. General environmental factors, health status, dietary behaviors and nutrient intakes were compared according to family types, the elderly living along showed a significantly lower in monthly income(p<0.01), self perceived health status(p<0.001), Instrumental Activity of Daily Living(IADL) score, and General Self Efficacy Scale(GSES) score compared to the elderly living with spouse and those living with spouse and children. However, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale(CES-D) was higher than those of the elderly living family members (p<0.05). In addition, sum of dietary behavior score was the lowest in the elderly living alone (22.3 in elderly living alone, 24.1 in elderly living with spouse, 23.4 in elderly living with spouse and children, p<0.001) and nutrient intakes of potassium, zinc, vitamin C(p<0.01 respectively), calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin B6 and folic acid(p<0.05 respectively) also reported to be significantly lower in the elderly living alone than in others of two types. From these results, health status, dietary behavior pattern and nutrient intakes of the elderly living alone were found to be inadequate overall, so measures to deal with these health and nutritional status were needed.