The study was carried out on 5,579 households of 28 rural communes, among them 1,463 households had olders. The needs of medical service were very high (prevalence of self-reported illness was 1.8-2.4 times a year). Prevalence of olders who accessed clean water was very low, and the rate of medical insurance cover was 10.96%. Access time of local infirmaries was 12.3 minutes, of private drugstores was 11.1 minutes, and of hospitals was 14 minutes. The average cost of 1 illness course was 134,500VND. It’s necessary to strengthen communication about drug use, to increase amount of physicians in local infirmaries, and to promote local medical services.
Health Services ; Aged ; Epidemiology

A survey on illness patterns and health seeking behaviour of 670 older persons had been conducted in Ba Vi district, Ha Tay province, results showed that: elderly women reported more acute illness than elderly men did; there were significant differences in term of acute and chronic illness patterns between elderly men and women; both men and women most commonly sought health care from private practitioners, then by self-treatment and from commune health centres, however, women used hospitals less often than men; for the elderly, the most common reason for choosing a health care provider was the nearness; women more significantly than men depended on others to decide the choice of the type of health care service they should use
Health Services ; aged ; Rural Population

Functional mobility among the older population is an important element for a meaningful quality of life. The implementation of functional mobility assessments among the older people is vital to ensure appropriate steps can be taken in order to detect changes in functional mobility. There are varieties of functional mobility assessments available however most of the reliability test are based on Western countries. Therefore this study was to determine the reliability of three types of functional mobility status assessment of physical activity, especially among the older person. Sixty older respondents with the average age of 76.32 years and standard deviation of 8.66 participated in this study performed three types of functional assessments; Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), Timed Up and Go Test (TUG), Sit-to-Stand Test (STS). Two measurements were carried out with a week gap from the first measurement. Intraclass Correlation (ICC), Limits of Agreement (LOA) and Standard Error of Measurement (SEM) statistical tests followed by the combination of the three statistical analysis measurements were used for data analysis. The results showed all functional measurement tools using ICC, LOA, SEM and combination of three types analysis were highy reliable. The ICC value was exceeded 0.90 (ICC=0.94-0.99). The LOA graph for all activity measurement tools showed some degree of reliability while the SEM percentage recorded a value of less than 10% (SEM%=0.95%-9.95%). In conclusion, all three functional measurement tools are highly reliable and can be used as one of the functional test among the older people in Malaysia.
Health Services for the Aged ; Quality of Life

Aged ; Aging ; Health Services for the Aged ; Humans

Background : Health service needs for the elderly is rapidly increasing in Korea. Comprehensive functional status assessment is essential for effective and rational allocation of health service resources for the elderly. We assessed the validity of Korean version of Resident Assessment Instrument-Minimum Data Set Home Care Version(MDS-HC), which is comprehensive, client centered, and enabling the prediction of resources utilization.
Aged ; Dataset* ; Health Services ; Home Care Services* ; Humans ; Korea*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to describe public health services for the aged in public health centers from the perspective of public health nurses. METHODS: The interview data were collected from 11 public health nurses and analyzed by using Colazzi's (1978) descriptive phenomenology. The procedural steps was that described the phenomenon of interest, collected participants' descriptions of the phenomenon, extracted the meaning of significant statement, organized the meanings into theme clusters, wrote exhaustive descriptions and then incorporated data into an exhaustive description. RESULTS: The results included 291 re-statements, 49 constructed meanings, 27 themes, 12 theme clusters, and 5 categories were deduced. The five categories were 'perception of obstacles for elderly health system', 'sense of burden in services of health', 'planning about diverse elderly health services', 'elderly clients-focused performance', and 'solidify community ground of elderly health services'. Despite obstacles, participants tried to diverse health services for elderly. CONCLUSION: This study has described public health nurses' experiences about public health services for the aged. These findings have important implication for the practice of public health services for the aged and must be considered to develop program for planning and practice of public health nurses for the aged.
Aged ; Health Services ; Humans ; Public Health ; Public Health Nursing

Aged ; Dental Health Services ; standards ; Health Services for the Aged ; standards ; Humans ; Nursing Homes ; Oral Health ; Singapore

288 old persons aged > 60 years old at Thanh Luong quarter and Xuan Dinh commune in Hanoi city, were subjected to investigation about their health state, morbidity and their use of health services. Results showed a relatively high prevalence of chronical diseases, especially arthritis rheumatism, respiratory and neurological diseases. High blood pressure was also a common condition in urban area. Most of the elderly preferred to care at home or to visit private health care facilities. There was some difference between urban and rural area in the patterm of morbidity and of use of health care services of the elderly.
Morbidity ; Epidemiology ; Health Services Accessibility ; Aged

OBJECTIVE: Korea has 3,170 islands with about 188,000 inhabitants. These inhabitants' needs for health services might go unmet because of geographic isolation, slimmer availability of health services, and higher proportion of the elderly compared with the mainland population. Unmet health service needs might result in serious health problems for these island residents. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate their unmet health service needs and related factors from population of Nowha island. METHODS: The survey was conducted from July 30 to August 1 by trained interviewers. Target population were residents in Nohwa island and the sampling method was incomplete quota sampling. General characteristics, socioeconomic status, utilization of health service, and unmet medical service needs were investigated. First univariate and then multivariate logistic analyses were done for the statistical analysis. RESULTS: 324 residents were surveyed and the proportion of unmet health services needs was 26.5%. People living alone and of female sex had increased health services needs based on univariable analysis. From the multivariate analysis, those living alone increased the health services needs. Self-determined low socioeconomic status and medical aid increased the proportion of unmet medical needs, but these were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: In Nowha island, those who are elder, and of lower socioeconomic status had much higher unmet medical needs. The results suggest the need for more social support by qualified health services to solve this unmet medical needs problem.
Aged ; Female ; Health Services ; Health Services Accessibility ; Health Services Needs and Demand ; Humans ; Islands ; Korea ; Multivariate Analysis ; Social Class

OBJECTIVETo investigate the status of the clinical agency of detection, management, and health insurance for hypertensive patients in urban and rural communities of five provinces in China in 2010, in order to provide fundamental data for implementation and evaluation of community health management of hypertensive patients in basic public health service.

METHODSFrom Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, Sichuan and Gansu provinces, cities and districts (counties) were selected according to economic development level and 10 survey sites were finally determined. In each survey site, 3-4 communities or townships were selected by cluster sampling methods in 2010. A total of 8326 eligible hypertensive patients (4363 in urban and 3963 in rural) were included. The urban-rural difference of clinical agency and health insurance was compared for hypertensive patients.

RESULTSIn urban areas, 43.74% (1867/4268) hypertensive patients were first diagnosed at hospitals of district level or above, 25.07% (1070/4268) at community health service centers (CHSC), and 20.20% (862/4268) at community health service stations (CHSS), respectively; 30.72% (1274/4147) and 31.11% (1290/4147) patients chose CHSC and CHSS for their follow-up visiting, respectively; 60.23% (3073/5102) antihypertensive medication was obtained from pharmacies. In rural areas, 54.58% (2133/3908) hypertensive patients were first diagnosed at village clinics, 22.36% (874/3908) at township hospitals, and 18.86% (737/3908) at hospitals of county level or above; 70.49% (2695/3823) patients chose village clinics for their follow-up visiting; 46.23% (2116/4577) antihypertensive medication was obtained from village clinics, and 36.29% (1661/4577) from pharmacies. The main reasons for choosing clinical agency for both urban and rural patients were convenience (45.79%, 6276/13 706) and low cost (11.78%, 1614/13 706). The proportions of reimbursements for hospitalization expenses and total medical expenses for hypertensive patients in urban in the past year were 66.67% and 34.78%, respectively, which were much higher than those in rural (35.71% and 9.50%) (Z value was -12.13 and -17.56, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONCommunity-based hypertension detection and routine blood pressure measurement during clinical visiting should be further strengthened to improve early diagnosis of hypertension. The development of community-based clinical agency should be able to provide convenient and low cost health service for hypertensive patients to improve treatment, follow-up and control of hypertension.

Adult ; Aged ; China ; Cities ; Community Health Services ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Insurance, Health ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Public Health ; Rural Health Services ; Urban Health Services