Background: Maintaining optimal well-being of the elderly is now a major concern since their numbers are expected to swell in the next decades. Thus, there is a need to focus on the health and psychosocial status and needs of our older persons. Objective: To describe the biopsychosocial profile and needs of older persons in Davao City. Methodology: This study utilized secondary data obtained from the OPS 2009 survey after informed consent was sought from the DCOP-RG. The OPS 2009 survey was developed by a multidisciplinary group of professionals commissioned by the Davao City Sangguniang Panglungsod in order to create a basis for the implementing rules of the expanded senior citizen act for Davao City. It included 398 respondents age 60 and above who gave consent, representing the population of older persons from the different areas in Davao City. Data gathering was done by a team of trained interviewers. Anonymized gathered in OPS 2009 survey was utilized for this present study. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data. Results: There was an equal sex distribution among the respondents. Majority were married, widowed and Roman Catholics, 76.6% of the respondents believed that they were in good health. 60.1% of the respondents had previous admissions but even so, majority (87.9%) had someone to help take care of them during their admissions. Psychosocial status of the older persons was favorable in general. Majority (72.2%) still engage in recreational activities. Furthermore, the respondents have a happy disposition in life wherein majority have a perceived happy mood left contented and at peace. Almost all (98%) still feels needed by their kin and friends. Perceived health needs include better medical benefits while perceived psychosocial needs include financial and moral support. Conclusion: The study showed that older persons in Davao City perceived themselves to be happy, contented, calm, at peace and important to their families. However, since most were diagnosed with chronic illnesses such as hypertension, arthritis, diabetes, and asthma; health related needs and provision of better medical benefits topped their list. Financial support and psychosocial support from their families, government and non-government institutions were also listed as needs. In general, they envisioned Davao to be an older person friendly place with program that put elderly welfare, safety and protection at the forefront.
Aged 80 and over ; Aged ; FRAIL ELDERLY

PURPOSE: This study was done to evaluate the formal education program provided by the Korean government for care workers for frail elderly people. METHODS: This study was a cross-sectional survey in which 438 certified care workers who had completed the education program participated. Data were collected from June to October 2009, using a self-report questionnaire consisting of satisfaction with, and understanding of the education program. RESULTS: The participants had a mean age of 46.7 yr, 87.9% were female and 58.2% were high school graduates. For the theory part of the education, the highest score for understanding was for 'supporting household & activities of daily living' while the lowest score for understanding was for 'care for death and dying'. For the practical education, the highest score for understanding was for 'talking with the client' and the lowest score was for 'first aid & basic life support'. There was a significant difference in satisfaction and understanding of the theoretical and practical parts according to educational level. CONCLUSION: Continuing education programs are needed for care workers for elders, both in the theoretical and practical areas. Also the content of programs should address the weak points of this formal education program.
Adult ; Aged ; Caregivers/*education/psychology ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Education, Nursing, Continuing ; Female ; Frail Elderly ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Program Evaluation ; Questionnaires ; Republic of Korea

More than half of new cancers occur in the elderly and population is rapidly being aged. As a result, care of older patients constitutes an important part of the everyday practice for the adult oncologist. With few guidelines, the older patients are too much often under treated and have wide heterogeneity in the ability to undergo aggressive therapy. Comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) is helpful in evaluating the functional age of the elderly patients and guiding the adequate treatment in clinical practice, according to tolerance to cancer therapy and their life expectancy. For the healthy elderly patient with minimal comorbidity and near-normal functional reserve, aggressive treatment including full-dose chemotherapy is warranted and canyield results similar to those in young patients in gynecologic oncology part. The modified treatment plan, such as less aggressive or invasive operation and single-agent regimen of chemotherapy, can be considered to 'frail' patients with much impaired function. Many studies have shown promising results and more brief and practical tools of geriatric assessment are being developed. Prospective trials evaluating the utility of CGA to guide intervention to improve the quality of cancer care in the elderly cancer patients are justified. In addition, Korean version, cancer-specific or treatment-specific tools of geriatric assessment need to be constructed.
Adult ; Aged ; Comorbidity ; Frail Elderly ; Geriatric Assessment ; Humans ; Life Expectancy ; Population Characteristics

PURPOSE: This study was to identify the degree of the sense of mastery and health-promoting behaviors in the vulnerable female elderly of urban areas, and to determine factors influencing their health-promoting behaviors. METHODS: The subjects were 253 vulnerable female elders aged over 60 in D City. Data were collected by a questionnaire survey. Analysis of data was done with the SPSS/WIN program. RESULTS: The mean score of the sense of control was 15.8. It was significantly different according to living arrangement, and subjective health status. The mean score of health-promoting behavior was 3.8. It was significantly different according to living arrangement and subjective health status. Health-promoting behavior was affected more highly in subjects with a low degree of sense of mastery than in those with a medium degree of sense of mastery. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the sense of mastery is an important variable for health-promoting behavior. These findings may give useful information for developing health-promoting programs focused on the sense of mastery in vulnerable female elderly adults.
Adult ; Aged* ; Female ; Frail Elderly ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Residence Characteristics ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Frailty, a progressive physiologic decline in multiple body systems, is defined as a state of increased vulnerability to the stress that carries an increased risk of disability, hospitalization, functional decline, and mortality in older adults. Frailty is a new and emerging syndrome in the field of geriatrics. With the advance of population aging, frail elderly continue to increase and frail older adults are among the most challenging for medical management. Contrary to popular belief, frailty is not present in all elderly persons, which suggests that it is associated with aging but not an inevitable process of aging and may be prevented or treated. Common signs and symptoms of frailty are fatigue, weight loss, muscle weakness, slowness, and low activity. The purpose of this article is to review what is known about frailty, including the definition, epidemiology, pathophysiology, and to examine potential areas of future research.
Adult ; Aged ; Aging ; Fatigue ; Frail Elderly ; Geriatrics ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Muscle Weakness ; Weight Loss

Sarcopenia is a major component of age-related frailty and also a strong predictor of disability, morbidity, and mortality in the aging population. Resistance exercise could be the most effective intervention that improves muscle mass, muscle strength, and physical performance, thus preventing sarcopenia in older adults. The benefits of these exercise programs correlate with the intensity and the frequency of the exercise regimes used in the trials. Clinical trials vary in terms of population, setting, and exercise regimes; hence, more standardized clinical trials are required. In this review, we focus on the effects of resistance exercise on muscle mass, strength, cognitive and physical function, and the principle and applications of resistance exercise considering recent trends that include high-intensity interval training, high speed power training, eccentric exercise, and whole-body vibration exercise.
Adult ; Aged ; Aging ; Frail Elderly ; Humans ; Mortality ; Muscle Strength ; Sarcopenia* ; Vibration

BACKGROUND: Frailty, a multidimensional geriatric syndrome, confers a high risk of falls, disability, hospitalization, and mortality. The prevalence and correlates of frailty in older people dwelling in rural communities are unknown. METHODS: We examined frailty, as defined by the Korean Geriatric Society, and social correlates among rural community-dwelling older adults (n=419) aged 65 or older. RESULTS: The prevalence of frailty and prefrailty was 11.5% and 38.7%, respectively. Among eight frailty criteria, the prevalence of multiple medications was highest (57.3%), while self-rated health as "unhealthy" was the second highest (45.1%). In contrast, the prevalence of exhaustion was the lowest (10%) among the eight frailty criteria. The prevalence of frailty was 12.6% among women and 6.3% among men (p=0.02). Uneducated older adults showed a significantly higher prevalence of frailty (13.1%) than any other educational groups (6.3-9.2%). In addition, older adults with high social support showed lower frailty than the other groups. After adjustment for other factors; however, a lack of social support (odds ratio for frailty, 1.98; 95% confidence interval, 1.14-3.44) was associated with increased odds of frailty. CONCLUSION: Frailty is not uncommon among rural community-dwelling old men and women in Korea. In the rural community, females with a lack of social support might be at a higher risk of frailty, as those were two of the strongest risk factors discovered in this study. This study calls for more interest and concern for the frail older adults with a lack of social support in rural communities.
Adult* ; Aged ; Female ; Frail Elderly ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Mortality ; Prevalence* ; Risk Factors ; Rural Population

Presbycusis, a bilateral sensorineural hearing loss caused by changes in the inner ear, is related to multiple factors such as noise exposure and otologic disease. In institute-based studies, we tried to determine the incidence of presbycusis in Korean populations living in Seoul, Kyunggi and Kangwon provinces by gender and age groups. The subjects were people who had visited health promotion centers. Pure tone audiometry was done over 20 years on 6,028 subjects. In a community-based study, the subjects were elderly residents of Kanghwa-do area. There were no obvious factors that could cause hearing impairment in the subjects. For the pure tone audiometry, hearing threshold was obtained by using the six-dimension method. The incidence of presbycusis for subjects aged 65 years and older was 37.8% and 8.3% for > or = 27 dB HL criterion and > or = 41 dB HL criterion, respectively. The incidence increased with age. A statistically significant difference in the hearing threshold was found between men and women aged 65 years or older. No differences were found between the community-based study and the institute- based studies. There was a high incidence (about 40%) of presbycusis among Koreans aged 65 years or older (for > or = 27 dB HL criterion). With an aging population, we anticipate that this report could be used to provide a basic data for the study of presbycusis.
Adult ; Aged ; Audiometry, Pure-Tone ; Auditory Threshold ; Female ; Frail Elderly ; Health Promotion ; Human ; Incidence ; Korea/epidemiology ; Male ; Middle Age ; Presbycusis/epidemiology* ; Presbycusis/diagnosis

PURPOSE: This study aimed to identify the associated factors of the perceived health status of the elderly in Korea and to provide basic data for developing nursing interventions for the elderly's health management. METHODS: This study used a descriptive correlational research design. The subjects of this study were 335 elderly people over 60 yr living in an urban city. Data were collected through personal interviews using questionnaires from September 2006 to March 2007. Empirical indicators of perceived health status were measured by SF-36, nutritional screening initiative (NSI), activities of daily living (ADL) Index, and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) scale. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, and hierarchical regression. RESULTS: The mean age of the subjects was 72.8 and 57.0% of subjects were female. 41.5% of variance in physical health was explained by nutrition, ADL, IADL, and the number of years attending school. Among them the most important factor was ADL. 13.2% of variance in mental health was explained by the number of family, nutrition, and IADL. Among them the most important factor was nutrition. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to develop supportive interventions for improving the perceived health status of elderly people by considering the most important factors shown in this study.
*Activities of Daily Living ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Female ; Frail Elderly/*psychology ; *Health Status ; Homes for the Aged ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Korea ; Male ; Middle Aged ; *Nutritional Status ; Questionnaires ; Urban Population

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among depression, somatic symptoms, and activities of daily living of elderly women in urban areas. METHOD: After obtaining participant's consent forms, a one-time, face-to-face, and private interview was conducted with each participant from Sep, 2006 to Jan, 2007 by trained graduate-level students. The questionnaire consisted of K-GDS, PHQ-15, Barthel Index, and Instrumental Activity of Daily Living. The collected data was analyzed with the SPSS/PC 12.0 program, which was used for frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression. RESULTS: The major findings of this study were as follows 1) 34.1% of participants belonged to the depression group. 2) There were significant relationships between depression and monthly income, somatic symptoms, ADL, IADL, and number of chronic disease. 3) Significant factors influencing depression were somatic symptoms, ADL, and monthly income. CONCLUSION: The results of this study give useful information for designing interventions and program development for appropriate depression management and care for elderly women.
*Activities of Daily Living ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; *Depression ; Female ; Frail Elderly/*psychology ; Health Status ; Humans ; Interpersonal Relations ; Middle Aged ; Questionnaires ; Social Isolation ; Urban Population