• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.61-69
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• 2006

Purpose: The study was done to identify the perceived health status of elderly women and men, and define the difference between the two groups. Method: The subjects of this study were 209 elderly people over 60 years living in urban areas. The data was collected through personal interviews using questionnaires from September to October 2002. Data was categorized by content analysis and then data was analyzed with the SPSS program by frequency and Chi-square tests. Result: Elderly women complained of types of pain(leg pain, arthritis, lumbago, headache) more than elderly men. Elderly men complained about decreased levels of activities such as walking and general weakness. Elderly men and women have discomforts in daily living such as walking and doing household chores. First, elderly men and women want good health and improvement of health status. Second, women want happiness for their offspring, but men want to improve the government and the laws. Conclusion: Elderly women want relief from pain, but elderly men want an increased level of activity. The findings of this study give useful information to conduct health education and care for elderly women.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.620-629
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to assess dietary habits and seasonal variation and diversity of food intakes of elderly women living alone as compared to those of elderly women living with family in a rural area. Forty nine elderly women living alone and forty one elderly women living with family who reside in Goryeong-gun, Gyeongbuk, were interviewed using questionnaires in summer 2005, and their food intakes were assessed secondly in winter and thirdly in spring 2006. The average ages were 74.7 years for elderly living alone and 72.8 years for elderly living with family. Tooth status and bone fracture experience were similar between the groups. The prevalence of musculoskeletal disease was 61.2% and that of circulatory disease was 32.7% of the subjects. Average of total score of mental depression of the subjects was 5.94 out of 12 points, and it was not significantly different between the two groups. Skipping meals was more frequent and mealtime was more irregular in the elderly women living alone as compared with the elderly women living with family. Consumption of dietary supplements was also less in the elderly women living alone. Food intakes by the elderly women living alone tended to be lower than those by the elderly women living with family. Dietary diversity score was significantly lower with the elderly women living alone as compared with the elderly women living with family only in summer (p < 0.01). Percentages of the subjects who have taken meat group and vegetable group were significantly lower in the elderly living alone compared with the elderly living with family during summer. Therefore, it is necessary to develop food assistance or supporting program suited for the season within a community for elderly women living alone.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.59-73
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• 1999

It is known that the role of informal support for elderly women is critical to their physical and mental health, adjustment in old age, and their overall life satisfaction. Elderly women's situation such as social losses, widowhood, living alone, and geographic relocation etc. may result in a need for more informal supports for elderly women's health than ever before. Particularly, women's same-sex friendships were rated higher for overall quality, intimacy, enjoyment, and nurturance. Unlike a generally accepted notion that later life for women is a time of isolation and loneliness, elderly women tend to maintain and reestablish their friendship regardless their marital status and living situation. Although studies on informal support for elderly women were inconclusive in many ways, elderly women's friendship tends to be stable despite of changing health status and life events. The relative importance between daughters and friends was also controversial. This study suggests that more research with reliable measurements is necessary for the practical prevention and intervention program of elderly women's health on this issue.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.379-388
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• 2007

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to compare the motivation for health behavior, health behaviors practices, and ADL of institutionalized elderly women with those of non-institutionalized elderly women. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted in convenience samples of 144 aged women(80 institutionalized and 64 non-institutionalized) using structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics, $x^2$-test, and ANCOVA were used for data analysis with SPSS program. Results: The institutionalized elderly reported significantly higher motivation than the non-institutionalized elderly. In subcategories of motivation, self-efficacy of the institutionalized elderly was significantly lower than that of the non-institutionalized elderly. The non-institutionalized elderly reported significantly lower perceived benefits and significantly higher perceived barriers than institutionalized elderly. The institutionalized elderly reported significantly lower health behaviors in exercise and nutrition than the non-institutionalized elderly. Among health behaviors of the non-institutionalized elderly women, stress management marked the lowest score. Conclusion: To enhance motivation of institutionalized elderly women, interventions for building self-efficacy are needed. To promote the health behavior of the non-institutionalized elderly, stress management programs are needed. All elderly women need exercise.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.732-738
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• 1999

This study was performed to investigate the risk factors for coronary heart disease in elderly women. Seventy five elderly women over 65 years of age participated with 35 elderly men over 65 years of age, 40 middle-aged men and 31 middle-aged women as control subjects. The percentage of body fat(34.1 5.6%) in elderly women found to be significantly higher than in other groups and their waist/hip circumference ratio(WHR) was higher than in middle-aged women. The concentrations of plasma total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol in elderly women were higher than in other groups, TG concentration higher than in middle aged women and HDL-cholesterol % lower than in other groups. Plasma cholesterol ester transfer protein(CETP) activities of elderly women were significantly higher than in middle-aged subjects, but were not different from those of elderly men. Plasma Apolipoprotein(Apo) A-I level in elderly women was higher than in middle-aged men but not different from the other groups. Differences among groups were not great in Lipoprotein (Lp)(a)levels. CETP activities were significantly correlated with age, body fat % total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and Lp(a). Therefore, it appears that the increased risk of coronary heart disease in elderly women is due to the increase of body fat, central adipose distribution, serum total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and CETP activities.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.88-99
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• 2003

The body changes of the elderly women are the forward tilt of the neck and shoulder point shrinkage of the spinal column, and protrusive abdomen. Unfortunately, few data based on body measurements for elderly women existed and a few studies are limited to the body figure of the elderly women. If these changes are not applied to the manufacturing of the clothing, almost of the elderly women will be unfitted with their clothing. So to improve the fitting of the elderly women, it is necessary to use the standard size systems for elderly women. This report is the first study to develop the standard tables of body measurements to be used for improving the fit of garments and patterns for women aged 60 and older. This study drew from anthropometric measurements of 337 and photographic measurements of 276 women aged 60 and older. It described the protocol of anthropometric measurement, the comparison between the measured data and the data on which National anthropometric survey of Korea 1997 is based, and the development of body measurement standard tables for elderly women. And we also considered the regional difference of body dimensions in order to develop the national size standards for elderly women. Further study would include the classification of body dimensions and description of each figure type for sizing apparel of women aged 60 and older.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.277-302
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• 1996

The purpose of this study is to suggest fundamental information about wearing method and production of brassiere, which is suitable for physiological hygiene and efficient action for elderly women. The subject is 418 elderly women aged 50∼69 years old. Data is processed by a computer(SAS) and is analyzed by using frequency, percentage, x²-test. The main results of this study are as follows. 1. Elderly women'weight and breast size are higher thant their younger counterparts'in their 20's, but the older and poorer women with more children have smaller weight and breast. Most of the elderly women feel that their breasts are drooped or falling apart. I fact, those elderly women who gave birth to more children have more drooped and wider breasts. The major type of elderly women'breast is the 'drooped breast' featured more by those elderly women who have more children. 2. Most of the elderly women began to wear the brassiere for the first time in their 20's the older women with more children began to wear the brassiere earlier, while those less educated and poorer began to protect their breasts with brassiere later. Many elderly women wear the brassiere to be protected from dirt, noise or look more neat, but day tend to wear the brassiere not all day around but at certain times, older, less educated and proper women with more children tend to use the brassiere for etiquette and less often. This group of elderly women feel tedious, stage or uncomfortable for the brassiere. 3. Most of the elderly women know about their brassiere size. Such variables as age, education and income are correlated positively with the interest in and consciousness of the brassiere size. All in all, the statistical distribution of elderly women's brassiere size is very wide, while most of them use 90A, 85A and 95A sizes. On the other hand, the most popular size of the under bust circumference is 85∼90cm, while their primary cup size is A.

• The Korean Journal of Rehabilitation Nursing
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.145-155
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• 2002

Purpose: This study tries to analyze the differences of memory performance and the metamemory of the elderly women according to degree of depression. And also it attempts to find the correlations among the sub-concepts of metamemory which have close relationships to the memory performance followed by the depression. Methods: The subjects of this study are 60 the elderly women who are older than sixty years in Busan city, Korea. We use the MIA(Dixon, et al., 1988) to measure metamemory and measure the memory performances such as the immeadiate word recall, the delayed word recall, the word recognition task, and face recognition. Results: 1. The average point of deprssed elderly womens' metamemory was significantly lower than non-depressed womens' point(t=10.86 p<.0017). Looking into subconcept of metamemory, depressed elderly womens' strategy, capacity, change, achievement point were significantly lower than non-depressed women. 2. In terms of immediate word recall and delayed word recall performances, depressed elderly women are significantly lower than non-depressed elderly women. 3. The degree of depressed elderly womens' metamemory(strategy, achievement, change, capacity) has significant correlations with immediate word recall performances. Conclusion: Metamemory has close relationship with the memory performance of elderly women. And also depressed elderly's sub-concepts of metamemory which have influences on their memory performance are different from non-depressed elderly's sub-concepts. Therefore, when we try to develop some programs to prevent memory decrease of elderly women, we should take these point into consideration.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.1-16
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• 2005

In an attempt to illuminate the lives of elderly women, this article has studied the economical situation and economical well-being felt by the elderly women dwelling in the southwestern coastal islands of Korea. In this article, we have attempted to conduct a consolidated research that incorporates both qualitative as well as quantitative research methods. The researched areas included 6 islands. Here are the main results. : 1) The elderly women living in the islands were enduring various forms of excessive labor, and there were many cases where these women didn't receive adequate amount of compensation. There should be more considerations made by the locals and proper restrictions should be brought out in order to prevent these women from conducting excessive and hazardous tasks. 2) Due to unpropitious economical situations, the majority of the elderly women living in these islands were incapable of saving money. There should be a plan devised to empower the economical capabilities of these elderly women that will elicit economical effects. 3) The degree of economical well-being that these elderly women felt was very low, both in the absolute level of economical satisfactions, as well as the relative level of economical satisfactions compared to the people living in the cities. There should be an incorporated effort conducted by the elderly women themselves, the local society, and the relevant offices to increase the level of economical well-being that are felt by these elderly women.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.11-23
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• 2005

The purposes of this article is to assess the current status of conjugal violence among elderly women and to examine the relationship between conjugal violence and the mental health status of elderly women in Korea. The results of this study are; (1) the largest proportion (44.9%) of elderly women experienced verbal violence, followed by minor physical violence (35.5%), severe physical violence (13.1%), and sexual violence (5.6%); (2) the mental health status of elderly women who have been exposed to violence was worse than that of elderly women who have not. In conclusion, this article argues that interventions for better marital relationships among elderly couples are needed and comprehensive programs for improvement of mental health are also needed for elderly women in general.