This research is aimed to investigate into the subjective health awareness, health promoting behavior, and quality of life in elderly rural women, with a view to suggesting basic materials for improving the quality of life of the aged people.
To do that, materials were collected between July 1, 2013 and September 30, 2013 from women aged 65 or more and living at the county of K in Gangwon Province. The tool used by Gyeong-suk Yi(1997) was employed as a determinant for understanding the subjective health awareness of elderly rural women, and the health promoting behavior was determined by extracting and amending 6 spheres of the national health promoting movement in Korea. The quality of life was examined by applying the tool used by Hong-gwon Choe(2010). Collected materials were analyzed using SPSS 20.0/PC program. The actual number, percentage, subjective health awareness, health promoting behavior, and quality of life of the population were evaluated to earn the average and standard deviation. The subjective health awareness, health promoting behavior, and quality of life of the population according to general characteristics of them were analyzed by means of t-test and ANOVA. The relationship among the subjective health awareness, health promoting behavior, and quality of life was analyzed by hiring the Pearson correlation coefficient. The following are the results of the analyses.
First, the subjective health awareness of the population was scored at 2.89±.43 points out of 5 points and the average health promoting behavior was 3.08 points. In the sub-spheres, the daily life management was scored at 3.30±.71 points, which is the highest. The quality of life was scored at 3.00±.55 points out of 5 points on the average.
Second, the subjective health awareness of the population was different depending upon their age, housing type, the absence or presence of children, satisfaction with their living conditions, and chronic diseases. In other words, as they were younger, having their own house and children, satisfied with their living, but having no chronic diseases, their subjective health awareness was higher. Moreover, their health promoting behavior was dependent upon their age, academic background, house type, living with the spouse and other family members, satisfaction with their living, frequency of communicating with others, and the absence or presence of chronic diseases. That is to say, their health promoting behavior was higher when they were younger, having their own house, staying with a spouse, satisfied with their living, and frequently (more than once a day, not less 3 times a week) communicating with others. Lastly, the quality of life of the population depended upon their age, academic background, house type, having a spouse and other family members, economic status, satisfaction with their current living, and frequently (more than once a day, not less 3 times a week) communicating with others. In other words, the quality of life was higher when they were younger, having a higher academic level, possessing their own house, staying with a spouse, satisfied with their living, and frequently (more than once a day) communicating with others.
Finally, the subjective health awareness, health promoting behavior, and the quality of life of rural elderly women were significantly correlated. In other words, the quality of life and health promoting behavior were higher when their subjective health awareness was higher.