Lee Sok-Goo, Jeon So-Youn
Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Chungnam National University.
J Prev Med Public Health. 2005 May;38(2):154-62.
To analyze the relationships of socioeconomic status(SES) to health status and health behaviors in the elderly.
Data were obtained from self-administered questionnaire of 4,587 persons, older than 65 years, living in a community. We measured the sociodemographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, health status (subjective health status, acute disease, admission experience, dental state, chronic disease etc.), activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and mini-mental state examination-Korean (MMSE-K). Binary and multinominal logistic regression analyses were employed to analyze factors affecting on the socioeconomic status of the elderly.
With regard to the SES and health status, those with a low SES had poorer subjective health states and lower satisfaction about their physical health. Also, acute disease experiences, admission rates and tooth deciduation rates were higher in those of low SES. In the view of physical and cognitive functions, the ADL, IADL and MMSE-K scores were also lower in those of low SES. However, with regard to health behaviors, lower smoking and alcohol drinking rates were found in the low SES group, and a similar trend was shown with regular physical exercise, eating breakfast, and regular physical health check-up. From these findings, we surmise that those with low SES have a poorer health condition and less money to spend on health, therefore, they can not smoke or drink alcohol, exercise and or have a physical health check-up.
This study suggests that socioeconomic status plays an important role in health behaviors and status of the elderly. Low socioeconomic status bring about unhealthy behavior and poor health status in the elderly. Therefore, more specific target oriented(esp. low SES persons) health promotion activities for the elderly are very important to improve not only their health status, but their health inequity also.
分析社会经济地位（SES）与老年人健康状况及健康行为之间的关系。
数据来自对居住在某社区的4587名65岁以上老年人进行的自填式问卷调查。我们测量了社会人口学特征、社会经济地位、健康状况（主观健康状况、急性疾病、住院经历、牙齿状况、慢性病等）、日常生活活动能力（ADL）、工具性日常生活活动能力（IADL）以及韩国简易精神状态检查表（MMSE-K）。采用二元和多项逻辑回归分析来分析影响老年人社会经济地位的因素。
关于SES与健康状况，SES较低者的主观健康状况较差，对其身体健康的满意度也较低。此外，SES较低者的急性疾病经历、住院率和牙齿脱落率较高。从身体和认知功能方面来看，SES较低者的ADL、IADL和MMSE-K得分也较低。然而，关于健康行为，SES较低组的吸烟和饮酒率较低，在定期体育锻炼、吃早餐和定期进行身体健康检查方面也呈现出类似趋势。从这些发现中，我们推测SES较低者的健康状况较差，且用于健康方面的支出较少，因此，他们无法吸烟、饮酒、锻炼或进行身体健康检查。
本研究表明社会经济地位在老年人的健康行为和健康状况中起着重要作用。社会经济地位较低会导致老年人出现不健康行为和较差的健康状况。因此，针对老年人开展更具针对性的目标导向型（尤其是针对SES较低者）健康促进活动，对于改善他们的健康状况以及减少健康不平等现象都非常重要。
