Health Status, Healthy Lifestyle, Activity, Perception of Health, and Health Services: Differences Between Baby Boomer Women and Elderly Women in Korea

Purpose:

The purpose of this was to investigate the health status, healthy lifestyle, activity, perception of health, and health services between Baby Boomer Women and Elder Women in Korea.

Methods:

The data were derived from the 2011 Korea Health Panel annual survey database (β-version 2.0) by National Health Insurance Services [NHIS] and Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs [KIHSA]. Based on the database on the 170,350 Korean who had ever used Health Services in 2011, data of the number of women aged 50 or older were used for this study (N=3559). They were divided into the 1058 baby boomer women group (50-64) and 2051 elderly women group (65+). The data were statistically analyzed by descriptive statistics with module of the SPSS Statistics V 21.0 program.

Results:  

1: Health status: 77 percent of the baby boomer women group and 93 percent of Elder Women groups are diagnosed with chronic disease. Nearly 24 percent of the baby boomer group and 37.5 percent of Elder Women groups have eye problems. A fourth of the baby boomer group and less than half of the Elder Women group complained “difficulty chewing due to teeth and mouth” for one year.

Almost 20 percent of the participants presented “little bit feeling of anxiety and depression”. Past history of medication related feeling of depression and suicidal thought accounted for 10 percent of the participants. About 30 percent of the baby boomer women group and nearly 20 percent of Elder Women groups reported stress to their task.

2: Healthy lifestyle: Over 80 percent of the two groups reported that they have three meals a day regularly. Only 3 percent of both groups were reported to have toothbrushes between meals. More than 88 percent of the two groups reported that they can dress and bath without help. Just 5 percent of both groups were reported to have history of smoking.

3: Activity: Less than 10 percent of Baby Boomer Women group and roughly 30 percent of Elder women group reported “walking problems and daily activities of the day”. Regarding physical activity, roughly 70 percent of the both groups stated “not engaging in vigorous physical activity and moderating physical activity for the seven days”. On the contrary, around 30 percent of the two groups reported walking for seven days. 

4: Perception of health and health services: About 28 percent of Baby Boomer Women group and 14 percent of Elder Women group reported poor self-perceived health status. Nearly 24 percent of two groups surveyed stated that they could not avoid cancer in their life. Unlike the perception of cancer risk, more than half of the two groups thought that they are less like to have cancer within 10 years. Roughly 50 percent of the both groups visited clinics when they had negative feeling to their health for one year. In addition, more than 80 percent of the groups thought that “routine exams are helpful for overall state of health”. However, less than half of the two groups visited dental clinics for three years.

Conclusion:

These results could be fundamental information to understanding of comprehensive health conditions for baby boomer women and elder women in Korea. Therefore, all of the information will allow the women and nurses to take these strategies into consideration so that the women maintain health.