Factors related with amount of stress in the elderly

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Functional status is important in the elderly and stress is highly related with functional status. This study was designed to evaluate the factors related with stress amount of the elderly. METHODS: The questionnaires for stress amount and health related factors were asked to the elderly who visited Health promotion center of Seoul national university hospital before health examination. Chi square-test, analysis of covariance were constructed to explore the factors related to stress amount. RESULTS: Mean age is 65.2+/-4.0 years and the proportion of the male is 54.9%. The frequency of severe stress is 10.4%, frequency of moderate is 26.5% and frequency of mild is 63.1%. The variables related to the stress are sex, marriage status, education status, average income, exercise, smoking, alcohol, subjective health cognition, satisfaction on life, disaster and personal loss and disease (anemia, hyperthyroidism). CONCLUSION: We conclude that sociodemographic characters, family factors, health behaviors, psychologic factors and biomedical factors are all related to the stress amount.