台灣肥胖及非肥胖老人的自覺健康狀況及其相關因子之探討

Perceived Health Status and Its Related Factors among Elderly Population with and without Obesity in Taiwan

高敏真(Min-Chen Kao) ； 顏啓華(Chi-Hua Yen) ； 陳宣志(Shiuan-Chih Chen) ； 陳俊傑(Chun-Chieh Chen) ； 汪正青(Cheng-Ching Wang) ； 李孟智(Meng-Chih Lee)

《台灣老年醫學暨老年學雜誌》 3卷4期 (2008/11) Pp. 298-310

摘要

Objectives: To explore the relationship and demographic characteristics of the perceived health status and its related factors among the elderly population with obesity and without obesity in Taiwan.
Methods: This study utilized cross-sectional data from the Bureau of Health Promotion, Department of Health in Taiwan. The information was collected during the National Survey on Health Promotion Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (HP-KAP Survey) in 2002. In the HP-KAP survey, 32,660 Taiwanese aged 15 and older were randomly selected to take part in the study and 26,755 Taiwanese (81.9%) completed the HP-KAP Survey with face-to-face interviews. The subjects participating in this study were those aged 65 or above. With obesity defined as BMI higher than 27, 596 subjects with obesity and 3,343 subjects without obesity were selected in total. Means, percentages, frequency, Chi-Square, Spearman correlation and Logistic regression were used for data analysis.
Results: Chronic diseases, utilization of medical service, and lifestyle were used to analyze the data. Those variables among the elderly subjects with obesity led to the following results: gender ratio was 44.3% (male) to 55.7% (female) and the mean age was 72.1 years; those variables among the elderly subjects without obesity led to the following results: gender ratio was 53.7% (male) to 46.3% (female) and the mean age was 73.3 years. Among the 596 elderly subjects with obesity, hypertension was the most common (52.6%), followed respectively by osteoporosis (37.9%), hyperlipidemia (33.9%), coronary heart disease (29.9%), diabetic mellitus (24.1%), renal disease (13.1%), stroke (7.1%) and asthma (6.9%). In those 3343 elderly subjects without obesity, similar sequence was observed except for coronary heart disease and hyperlipidemia. As learned from the survey, approximately 67.4% of the elderly subjects with obesity visited their physicians at least once in the past 1 month, which was more often than seeking help in Chinese medicine and alternative medicine; similar pattern was noted in the elderly subjects without obesity. Compared the perceived health status between now and one year ago, the subjects with obesity indicated that their perceived health status was getting worse. When using Spearman rank-order method to analyze the obese group, our study found prominent correlations between the current perceived health status and chronic diseases, such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis, and renal disease. Similar results were seen in the non-obese group. However, in the non-obese group additional correlation was found between asthma and the current perceived health status. When using Logistic regression, a correlation was identified in the elderly population in which those having regular exercise and not living independently usually reported a better self-perceived health status.
Conclusion: Current perceived health status among the elderly population with and without obesity is worse than one year ago, indicating that aging is commonly associated with decay of physical function. Furthermore, perceived health status among the elderly population is correlated with the presence of chronic diseases as well as regular exercise. Therefore, our health care systems should be fully aware of these issues and consequently provide better control or care for those elderly patients with chronic diseases and simultaneously encourage them to participate more in regular exercise.

關鍵字

老人 ； 自覺健康狀況 ； 肥胖

並列摘要

Objectives: To explore the relationship and demographic characteristics of the perceived health status and its related factors among the elderly population with obesity and without obesity in Taiwan.
Methods: This study utilized cross-sectional data from the Bureau of Health Promotion, Department of Health in Taiwan. The information was collected during the National Survey on Health Promotion Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (HP-KAP Survey) in 2002. In the HP-KAP survey, 32,660 Taiwanese aged 15 and older were randomly selected to take part in the study and 26,755 Taiwanese (81.9%) completed the HP-KAP Survey with face-to-face interviews. The subjects participating in this study were those aged 65 or above. With obesity defined as BMI higher than 27, 596 subjects with obesity and 3,343 subjects without obesity were selected in total. Means, percentages, frequency, Chi-Square, Spearman correlation and Logistic regression were used for data analysis.
Results: Chronic diseases, utilization of medical service, and lifestyle were used to analyze the data. Those variables among the elderly subjects with obesity led to the following results: gender ratio was 44.3% (male) to 55.7% (female) and the mean age was 72.1 years; those variables among the elderly subjects without obesity led to the following results: gender ratio was 53.7% (male) to 46.3% (female) and the mean age was 73.3 years. Among the 596 elderly subjects with obesity, hypertension was the most common (52.6%), followed respectively by osteoporosis (37.9%), hyperlipidemia (33.9%), coronary heart disease (29.9%), diabetic mellitus (24.1%), renal disease (13.1%), stroke (7.1%) and asthma (6.9%). In those 3343 elderly subjects without obesity, similar sequence was observed except for coronary heart disease and hyperlipidemia. As learned from the survey, approximately 67.4% of the elderly subjects with obesity visited their physicians at least once in the past 1 month, which was more often than seeking help in Chinese medicine and alternative medicine; similar pattern was noted in the elderly subjects without obesity. Compared the perceived health status between now and one year ago, the subjects with obesity indicated that their perceived health status was getting worse. When using Spearman rank-order method to analyze the obese group, our study found prominent correlations between the current perceived health status and chronic diseases, such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis, and renal disease. Similar results were seen in the non-obese group. However, in the non-obese group additional correlation was found between asthma and the current perceived health status. When using Logistic regression, a correlation was identified in the elderly population in which those having regular exercise and not living independently usually reported a better self-perceived health status.
Conclusion: Current perceived health status among the elderly population with and without obesity is worse than one year ago, indicating that aging is commonly associated with decay of physical function. Furthermore, perceived health status among the elderly population is correlated with the presence of chronic diseases as well as regular exercise. Therefore, our health care systems should be fully aware of these issues and consequently provide better control or care for those elderly patients with chronic diseases and simultaneously encourage them to participate more in regular exercise.

並列關鍵字

elderly population ； perceived health ； obesity