No abstract available.
Aged* ; Humans ; Primary Health Care*

BACKGROUNDS: Though K-ADL was developed and validated, weighting each item of K-ADL is needed to evaluate the severity of functional disability as a whole. METHODS: Nominal group technique was used to weight individual items of K-ADL. Relevant experts were recruited; one specialist in geriatrics, one expert in elderly health service, one doctor expert in questionnarie, one nurse and two social welfare workers and one caregiver who work in nursing home for elderly, one nurse working at dementia care center. At the first round, each expert assigned the weights of each item. At the second round, those experts met, discussed, and re-evaluated each weighting. Using the newly developed weighted score, we measured its validity compared to brain-disability grade and three experts' decision of severe dysfunction. RESULTS: For inability to perform task, 7 points were given to 'dressing'and 'washing face', 6 points to 'bathing', 9 points to 'feeding', 8 points to 'transfer and toileting'. If any assistance is needed, 7 points were scored to 'dressing', 4 points were scored to 'washing face', 'feeding', 'transfer' and 'toileting', 2 points were scored to 'dressing'. Correlation coefficient between weighted K-ADL sum and brain-disability grade was -0.665(p=0.000). CONCLUSIONS: We assigned differential weighting to each of K-ADL and found that summing weighted K-ADL was excellent in some validity test.
Aged ; Caregivers ; Dementia ; Geriatrics ; Health Services ; Humans ; Nursing Homes ; Social Welfare ; Specialization ; Weights and Measures

BACKGROUNDS: Korean Activities of Daily Living(K-ADL) scale was developed to measure the elderly function. The aim of the present study was to establish the validity and reliability of Korean Activities of Daily Living(K-ADL) scale. METHODS: Clinical validity and convergent validity was tested. Reliability was tested by internal consistency(Cronbach's alpha), two weeks test-retest method, and interrator correlation. RESULTS: Cronbach's alpha was 0.937. 2 weeks test-retest correlations in all 7 items were higher than 7.0. Interrator agreements were high in all 7 items(h=0.86~1.0). Nonnal control group had lower scores than patients group in all 7 items(p=0.000). Correlation coefficients between K-ADL score and braindisability grade was between -0.465(eating) and -0.696(bathing)(p=0.000). CONCLUSIONS: Korean Activities of Daily Living(K-ADL) scale is a valid and reliable instrument. In the future, the studies showing an association between K-ADL and mortality, prognosis are needed.
Activities of Daily Living ; Aged ; Humans ; Korea ; Mortality ; Prognosis ; Reproducibility of Results*

No abstract available.
Humans ; Specialization*

BACKGROUNDS: Katz index of ADL and Barthel index of ADL have been used to evaluate the function of disabled elderly in Korea. But no ADL scale reflecting Korean's own language expression and culture has been developed and verified yet. METHODS: Descriptions of basic activities which needed others' help were collected from 190 Korean disabled elderly. The collected results were categorized into basic activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living, and then in each domain such as bathing, shopping, etc. Preliminary instrument items were selected by the judgement of the expert committee, considering the frequency of the responses and the importance of each item. A preliminary questionnaire was developed based on the selected items. The preliminary questionnaire was pretested twice, and corrected by the results. Finally a scholar on Korean literature verified the questionnaire on the grammar and context. RESULTS: A total of 408 basic activities of daily living and 242 instrumental activities of daily living were collected. The activities were categorized into 7 domains of ADL(dressing, washing face and hand, bathing, eating, transfer, toileting, continence) and 10 domains of IADL(decorating, housework, preparing meals, laundry, outgoing for a short distance, using transportation, shopping, handling money, using telephone, taking medicine) CONCLUSIONS: We developed a Korean Activities of Daily Living(K-ADL) scale and Korean Instrumental Activities of Daily Living(K-IADL) scale reflecting Korean elderly's own language expression and culture.
Activities of Daily Living ; Aged ; Baths ; Eating ; Hand ; Housekeeping ; Humans ; Korea ; Meals ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Telephone ; Transportation

BACKGROUND: An inverse relationship between cholesterol level and the degree of depressive symptoms was found in several studies targeted to Westerners. But, other studies failed to replicate this finding, giving diverse opinion on this matter. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between the degree of depressive symptomps and lipid level, total calorie intake and fat intake respectively in adults screened in a health promotion center in Korea. METHOD: The study group consisted of 352 men and women who visited the Health Promotion Center of Seoul National University Hospital from June to August in 1998. Their depressive symptoms were measured by Korean version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale(CES-D). Lipid level was measured by enzymatic methods with fasting blood specimen. Total calorie and fat intake were calculated from a self-reported questionnaire on the types and amount of food. RESULTS: Depressive symptoms were not significantly related to lipid levels, total calorie intake, fat intake, age, exercise, BMI, smoking or alcohol consumption(p>0.05). But sex(P<0.05), marital status(P<0.05), educational level(P<0.05) and average income(P<0.05) were significantly related to depressive symptoms in the whole study group(n=352). Educational level(P<0.05), menopausal status(P<0.05) and LDL cholesterol(P<0.05) were significantly related to depressive symptoms only in women(n=185). However in multivariate models which adjusted for confounding factors these associations were not found(p>0.05). CONCLUSION: In contrast to the results of previous studies, no significant association between the degree of depressive symptoms and lipid levels, total calorie intake and fat intake respectively were found in Korean adults after adjusting for several factors related to health.
Adult* ; Cholesterol ; Depression* ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Fasting ; Female ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Seoul ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Surveys and Questionnaires