Health Status, Family Life, and Need Assessment of Welfare Services of the Elderly in Sungbuk-Ku, Seoul

ABSTRACT

The purposes of the study were twofold: to describe health status, family life, and participation to health education of the elderly, and to assess their needs for welfare services. The subjects were 1380 elderly persons over 65 years old who were selected by cluster sampling method from the residents of Sungbuk-Ku, Seoul. Data were collected by structured interview using questionnaires and analyzed by frequency and percentages. The results were as follows. The majority of the elderly had the religion, lived with the family of the first-born son. Over 80% of the elderly reported that their health status were \"good\" and that they did not need help for daily activities. The majority of them neither smoked nor drank, took a walk or jogging for daily exercise, and received health education from doctors in the community hospital or medical personnels in the district medical center. From the lists of the welfare services, the elderly chose the health-related services as most wanted, namely physical therapy, oriental therapy, home-visit by medical personnel, and rehabilitation exercise. The second-most needed services were house-cleaning, meal preparation and meal delivery. In addition, the elderly needed counselling services for emotional problems, hair-cutting and beauty-care. They also wanted someone who would do some errands. Implications for health- education programs and for social policy for the elderly were discussed.