Comparative Analysis of Health Behaviors, Health Status, and Medical Needs among One-Person and Multi-Person Household Groups: Focused on the Ageing Population of 60 or More

Abstract

Background: Among the issues caused by the increase of one-person households the health problems and primary medical needs of one-person elderly households among the issues with the increase in one-person households is very important. The purpose of this study was to identified health care needs and problems of one-person elderly households by comparing health behavior, health status, disease prevalence rate, and medical needs to one-person elderly households and multi-person households. Methods: Data were obtained from the 2017 Community Health Survey. In this study, 66,211 people who were over 60 years of age without missing variables were included in the final analysis. Results: One-person households showed poorer overall health behaviors, such as nutritional behaviors, exercise behaviors, drinking and smoking behaviors, and poorer subjective and objective health status than multi-person households. Furthermore, albeit the high requirement of medical services for mental health outcomes such as suicide attempts, the rate of not receiving services was also high indicating high barriers to receive and access health care. Conclusion: Comprehensive and direct comparison of health and medical factors revealed the medical vulnerability and unmet needs in terms of health promotion in the single-person elderly households. These results can be applied as the basic information to understand the needs and medical problems of these risk groups by primary medical doctors who predominantly treat single-person elderly households and can also be used as basic data for policy development in order to solve these unmet medical care needs.

Stress management in family environment

“…[ 33 ] Nevertheless, OPH shows an array of negative consequences of stress-poor eating and exercise behaviors, substance use, etc. [ 34 ]…”

Household-specific physical activity levels and energy intakes according to the presence of metabolic syndrome in Korean young adults: Korean National Health and nutrition examination survey 2016–2018

“…The level of PA, the degree of participation in exercise, and dietary and nutritional intakes have an impact on the risk for and prevalence of MetS. In a recent comparative analysis, among 66,211 older individuals (aged 60 years or more) in Korea, single-person households are considered to have worse overall health behaviors, such as exercise behaviors and nutritional behaviors, than multi-person households [12]. According to KNHANES data (2013-2015) of 2903 subjects ≥ aged 65 years, single-person households had worse nutrient intake overall, and had an increased prevalence of MetS [13].…”

Factors Associated with Poor Self-Rated Health among Older Women Living Alone

“…According to the Korea Institute of Health and Social Affairs, older people living alone showed a lower health status than older people living with family [ 3 ]. They had an average of 3.16 chronic diseases, and their self-rated health (SRH) was lower (2.80 out of 5.00) than older people living with family [ 4 ].…”

“…The Korean older adult living alone was found to have a higher age (70+), lower education level, and lower income compared to the older adult not living alone [ 4 ]. The smoking rate of the older people living alone was 92.1%, and the drinking rate was 81.5%, which was higher than that of those non-living alone [ 3 ]. This is even more pronounced in the older women living alone, most of whom were below elementary school graduates and lower income levels, such as basic living security, suffering from many chronic diseases, and more physical disabilities [ 9 ].…”