Evaluation of the Differences of Household Income and Physical Fitness Variables in Elderly Koreans

Abstract

Background and Objective
 Physical activity and fitness are complementary to each other, but they are independent concepts with regard to health. Although there are some studies about the relationship between one’s physical activity and economic level, there are very few studies about the relationship between one’s fitness level and economic level. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the fitness level of elderly Koreans according to their economic level.
 
 Material and Methods
 In 2015, 1,068 elderly Koreans (men=452, women=616) over 65 years of age participated in the Korean national fitness assessment. Their household income was collected using a self-report survey, and physical fitness variables (grip strength, sit-up, sit to stand, sit and reach, back scratch, one-leg standing with eyes open, and 6-minute walk) were measured directly. Then the differences between household income and physical fitness variables were evaluated by conducting one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Tukey test (post-hoc testing).
 
 Results
 Elderly men showed significant differences in grip strength (p=0.009), sit-up (p<0.001), and sit to stand (p<0.001) according to the four household income groups (under 70,000 won group, 700,000 to under 2,030,000 won group, 2,030,000 to under 3,500,000 won group, and over 3,500,000 won group) by one-way ANOVA. Elderly women showed significant differences in grip strength (p=0.001), sit-up (p<0.001), one-leg standing with eyes open (p=0.048), and 6-minute walk (p<0.001) according to the four groups by one-way ANOVA.
 
 Conclusion
 Physical fitness variables related to muscular strength and muscular endurance can be affected by household income in elderly Koreans.

Investigation of Physical Fitness According to Gender among Older Adults with Similar Physical Activity Levels

“…This difference did not appear to be significant. Research by Ahn and So (2018), stated that the lower body flexibility was 5.36±9.02 for older Korean men and 11.64±8.76 cm for women, with upper body flexibility of -12.83±13.71 cm for men and -5.51±12.69 cm for women. According to these results, the lower body flexibility of our older women and older men was less compared to Korean women and men, while for upper body flexibility, our older women were worse while our older men were better (Figure 2).…”

“…Physical fitness components and physical activity level with no statistical significance between genders between this research performed on the elderly Turkish group and our research results (Toraman & Ayçeman, 2005). In research investigating the correlation between the income levels and physical fitness of elderly Korean individuals with a mean age of 71.81 years, Ahn and So (2018) stated the sitstand result for men was 16.94, while it was 15.54 for women. In our research, though the mean age of men and women was 70 years, these values appear to be slightly low (Figure 1).…”

The relationship between home ownership and fall-related outcomes: The National Health and Aging Trends Study

“…It should be considered that unfamiliar places may lead to older adults experiencing falls and developing FOF [16]. Third, housing is an indirect indicator of poverty; renters are a proxy for low socioeconomic status (SES) or low income, and low incomes are highly associated with low physical activity [25,26]. A previous study indicated that renters showed increased odds of drug and healthcare nonadherence, poor self-reported health, vascular disease, and arthritis [27].…”