This study was designed to determine the attitude and degree of satisfaction of recipients toward the meal service program for elderly people. Nine hundred and eight elderly people(male: 301, female: 607) were interviewed by trained personnel. The results were as follows. Forty two percent of them had no income and 43.8% of the respondents were supported economically by the government. Their main reasons for attending the free congregated meal program was economic hardship(37.9%) The channels of becoming aware of the free meal program were through their friends(33.4%) and the meal service centers were located in the respondents residence area(36.0%) Thus any other advertisement from local government of official channels about the free meal program were not effective for the elderly 26.9% of the respondents felt inconvenience in visiting the meal service centers because they had some difficulty in walking, 53.5% of them however answered that they didn t have any complains and were quite satisfied with the meal service. The average satisfaction score for the free meal service was 63.4(maximum score 75) As for each evaluation item respondents were highly satisfied with volunteers attitude in meal serving(4.58+/-0.65: maximum 5 point) The evaluation score of females was generally lower than that of males(p<0.05) Oncemore, respondents who were in lowere socio-economic classes were marked by having significantly lower satisfaction scores for the meal service compared with higher scocio-economic classes. For the welfare of elderly people, meal service programs should be extended to more elderly persons and developed considering the elderlys ecological factors.
Aged* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Female ; Humans ; Local Government ; Meals* ; Volunteers ; Walking

BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis in men is an important public health problem. Because of the tendency of the numbers of the elderly population to increase, and age-specific incidence of fractures, it is inevitable that the health burden due to fractures will increase. Chronic alcoholism is associated with other risk factors, such as poor nutrition, leanness, liver disease, malabsorption, vitamin D deficiency, hypogonadism, hemosiderosis, parathyroid dysfunction and tobacco use, and these may contribute to the pathogenesis of bone disease related to alcoholism. Chronic alcohol intake may reduce bone density, but can also increase bone density. It is well established that liver disease also induces bone density changes, thus it is difficult to distinguish the role of liver disease from that of alcohol itself in the bone alterations occurring in patients with chronic alcohol consumption. Chronic male alcoholics, not having liver cirrhosis were studied to assess the effect of chronic alcohol consumption on their bone mineral density. METHODS: The study subjects comprised of 18 chronic heavy drinkers of more than 40 g of alcohol per day for at least 3 years and 18 age-matched controls who drank less than 20 g of alcohol per day. The serum and urinary parameters of bone and mineral metabolism were determined. The bone mineral density (BMD) was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry at four axial sites (lumbar spine, femoral neck, Ward's triangle and trochanter). RESULTS: The alcoholic and control patients drank an average of 97.6 g and 7.2 g of alcohol per day. Osteocalcin, a marker of bone formation, was slightly decreased in alcoholic patients, and deoxypyridinoline, a marker of bone resorption, was slightly increased, but the difference was not statistically significant (p> 0.05). There were no differences between the two groups in the levels of free testosterone, estradiol, 25 (OH) vitamin D and parathyroid hormone. The Ward's triangle and trochanter BMDs of the femur were significantly lower in the alcoholics than the controls, and lumbar spine BMD was decreased in proportion to the total alcohol intake in the alcoholics (r=-0.625, p=0.01). CONCLUSION: We suggest that chronic alcohol consumption induces low bone density in the femur Ward's triangle and trochanter. There was also a significant inverse correlation between the lumbar spine BMD and the total amount of alcohol consumed. Large scaled randomized and prospective studies are needed to clarify the pathogenesis of alcohol-induced osteoporosis.
Alcoholism/*complications ; Blood Chemical Analysis ; *Bone Density ; Case-Control Studies ; Comparative Study ; Densitometry, X-Ray ; Human ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Osteoporosis/*etiology

BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis in men is an important public health problem. Because of the incremental tendency of elderly population and age-specific incidence of fracture, it is inevitable that the health burden of fracture will increase. Also, the mortality of fracture in men is higher than in women. Alcohol consumption is a risk factor for osteoporosis based on the frequent finding of a low bone mass decreased bone formation rate and increased fracture incidence in alcoholics. Chronic alcohol consumption may reduce bone density but also increase bone density. It has been well established that liver cirrhosis also induces bone density changes and thus it is difficult to distinguish the role of liver disease from that of alcohol itself in bone alterations occurring in patients with chronic alcohol consumption. So we studied male chronic alcoholics which did not have liver cirrhosis to assess the effect of chronic alcohol consumption on bone mineral density. METHODS: We studied 18 chronic heavy drinkers of more than 40 g/day for at least 5 years and age-matched 18 control groups who had drunk alcohol less than 20 g/day. Serum and urinary parameters of bone and mineral metabolism were determined. Bone mineral density (BMD) was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry at four axial sites (lumbar spine, femoral neck, ward's triangle and trochanter). RESULTS: Alcoholic patients drank alcohol 97.7 g/day. Osteocalcin, a marker of bone formation, was slight decreased in alcoholic patients and deoxypyridinoline, a marker of bone resorption, was slight increased but not statistically significant (p > 0.05). The levels of 25-(OH)-vit D, parathyroid hormone, free testosterone, estradiol were not different between the two groups. Ward's triangle and trochanter BMD of femur were significantly lower than controls and L-spine BMD decreased parallel with total alcohol intake amount in the alcoholics (r=-0.62, p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: We suggest that chronic alcohol consumption induced low bone density on femur ward and trochanter. And there was significant inverse correlation between L-spine BMD and total alcohol consumption amount. The large scaled randomized and prospective studies are needed to clarify the pathogenesis of alcohol-induced male osteoporosis.
Absorptiometry, Photon ; Aged ; Alcohol Drinking ; Alcoholics ; Alcoholism ; Bone Density* ; Bone Resorption ; Eating* ; Estradiol ; Female ; Femur ; Femur Neck ; Humans ; Incidence ; Liver Cirrhosis* ; Liver Diseases ; Liver* ; Male* ; Metabolism ; Mortality ; Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 1 ; Osteocalcin ; Osteogenesis ; Osteoporosis ; Parathyroid Hormone ; Public Health ; Risk Factors ; Spine ; Testosterone