Social support exchange and quality of life among the Korean elderly.

This study examined the impact of providing and receiving support on the quality of life (QOL) of the elderly. Trained interviewers conducted face-to-face interviews with 714 rural community residents aged 60 and over in Korea. Subjects were asked a series of structured questions including age, sex, living arrangement, physical functions, and the frequency of providing and receiving support in their network (spouse, children, and friends). The Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale was used to measure degree of QOL. Results indicated that respondents had family-centered support networks. We found a significant correlation between support and physical functions and, less strongly, between support and age. When physical function was controlled, ANOVAs (Analyses of Variance) showed that providing support to their children and friends was more strongly related to QOL score than receiving support from the in both males and females. Overall, the elderly who exchanged support frequently, both providing and receiving support, showed the highest QOL in most situations. Researchers and policy makers should explore the potential benefits of providing support as well as receiving support.

[Social support exchange and quality of life among the Korean elderly in a rural area].

This study focuses on the influence of social support exchange through informal networks on Quality of Life (QOL) of the elderly. A total of 740 community residents aged 60 and over living in a rural area in Korea were interviewed from July 12 to July 15, 1993. Subjects were asked about the frequency of providing and receiving support to and from their spouse, children, and friends (24 items). The interview also included two QOL items (morale and life satisfaction) as well as instrumental ADL (five items), sex, age, education, and living arrangement. ANOVA showed that providing support to their children was strongly related to high morale score in female subjects. The elderly providing support to their friends were more likely to score high in morale. Analysis showed that the female elderly with greater support from their husbands had higher life satisfaction score. On the other hand, the male elderly group who provided support to their spouses but did not receive equal support in return from their spouses had low life satisfaction score. Providing support to their children was found to relate to high life satisfaction in both males and females, while receiving support from their children improved life satisfaction only in the females. Overall, the elderly group who exchanged support frequently with their spouses, children and friends showed the highest QOL score than any other group. These findings highlight the importance of supportive behavior by the elderly in order to improve their QOL.

Factors influencing users' return home on discharge from a geriatric intermediate care facility in Japan.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the factors that influence users' destinations on discharge from Geriatric Intermediate Care Facilities (GICFs), which were established in Japan in 1987 to help hospitalized older people return home. DESIGN: Retrospective chart review. SETTING: A 94-bed GICF attached to Saku Central Hospital in Japan. SUBJECTS: Charts of all users (N = 437) aged 65 years and older, discharged from the GICF between July 1987 and February 1991, were reviewed. MEASUREMENTS: The independent variables, obtained from users' admission records, were age, sex, place of residence before admission, length of stay, intellectual impairment (assessed by Karasawa's diagnostic criteria for senile dementia), ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs), and living arrangement of users in the GICF. The dependent variable was destination after discharge from the GICF. MAIN RESULTS: Multiple logistic regression analyses revealed that, compared with users who were able to successfully return home, users with little ability to perform ADLs, male users, and those admitted from other institutions were more likely to be hospitalized. Such analyses also revealed that users who came from institutions, had low ability to perform ADLs, and lived alone were more likely to be institutionalized in nursing homes. CONCLUSIONS: Evaluating a user's physical, mental, and socioeconomic conditions at an early stage of admission to a GICF may allow us to predict whether the user can be successfully discharged to his or her home or will have to remain in the GICF for an extended period.

Quality of life: a possible health index for the elderly.

To assess whether quality of life (QOL) could be employed as an outcome measure of health programs for elderly populations, we evaluated the relationship between subjective assessment of QOL ("morale scale") and objective constituents of active life such as activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental ADL (IADL) and work status along with determination of active life expectancy (ALE) in a rural district in Japan (n = 13,529). The QOL scale was positively correlated with ADL, IADL and work status but not with age. Validity and test-retest reliability were satisfactory as regards the small subsamples of respondents. ALE of the elderly aged 60 to 64 was 15.2 years, while their life expectancy was 27.1 years. Factors associated with lower ADL included age, lower IADL and joblessness. The QOL measurement and the objective variables can be incorporated into an assessment of the health status of the elderly in addition to conventional indices based on mortality.