Dietary Intake Assessment by the Number of Chronic Diseases and the Season for Elderly Living in Rural Area

Korea's aging population has been remarkably increased. They want to have not only extension of life expectancy but also improving quality of life. To maintain the quality of life, it is essential to have good nutrition. However, nutritional status of elderly in Korea has problems qualitatively and quantitatively. Risk factors for poor nutrition are advanced age, woman, living alone and low economic status. Another risk factor in rural area is season because seasonal changes can affect food intake of elderly. Thus this study surveyed the health status and dietary intakes of elderly by season in rural area. In this study, the elderly were grouped as group 1 {elderly who have one risk factor for chronic diseases (obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes)} and group 2 (elderly who have more than 2 risk factors). Can-Pro 3.0 was used for dietary data analysis and SPSS 12.0 program was used for statistical analysis. Obesity had the highest percentage 62%, followed by hypertension 59.5%, dyslipidemia 21.5% and diabetes 11.6%. Obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidemia were high in winter and WHR, diabetes and anemia were high in summer. Mean intakes of energy and nutrients were less than RI. Nutrients which were changed most by season were vitamin A and Vitamin C. Intakes of calcium and folic acid were less than recommended in summer. The ratio of CPF for carbohydrate was higher and fat was lower than recommended. In conclusion, the nutrient intake of Group 2 was better in quality but Group 1 was better in quantity. Nutrient intakes were poor in summer. In rural area, more careful nutritional assesment and management are needed for aged population, especially in summer.

Urinary Incontinence in the Elderly Populace of a Rural Area. A Comparison of Old People in Nursing Homes with Those in Hospitals / 日本農村医学会雑誌

A questionnaire survey was conducted to find out the fact about urinary incontinence in the elderly populace of a rural area in Tokushima prefecture. The survey was part of the study of the health status and urination of the aged, commissioned by the National Mutual Insurance Federation of Agricultral Cooperatives (Zenkyoren).<BR>It was found that 23.6% of the old people, male and female combined, living in their own home have the incontinence problem. The ratio for hospitalized patients was a little lower than this, but the involuntary voiding of urine into clothing and bedclothes was a problem in 27.0% of those staying in nursing homes.<BR>The number of incontinent persons was slightly larger in women than men. It showed a tendency to increase with advancing age.<BR>As for the type of incontinence, urgency and overflow types were common in men, while urgency and abdominal pressure types are predominant in women.<BR>The cause of urinary incontinence was unidentified in most of the cases. Next to the unknown cause came a sequela to cerebral apoplexy. A relatively larger number of incontinence cases among nursing home inmates could be ascribed to senile dementia.<BR>Even among those old people who live in their own home without depending much on their children, more than 20% said they have involuntarily leaked urine. About 30-50% of them confided they wet their pants more than once a day. To them, incontinence is a perennial problem, undermining the old people's quality of life. They wish to go out but cannot help staying at home only to swear at the condition they are in.<BR>In nursing homes, a great deal of time and energy has to be spent for looking after incontinent aged people. The burden of care which falls on nurses and aids is beyond measure. These findings suggest that we should face up to the actual state of affairs connected with incontient old people and care for those people and hasten to frame measures to cope with the situation.