This study focuses on the factors that have a negative impact on the physical function of people 67 years or older in Taiwan. Under the condition of understanding human nature and health, we study the impact of the health behavior on the results of four scales that measure the general functionality of a person,
namely: the Activities of Daily Living, the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living, the Nagi Scale , and the Completely Nagi Scale.
We obtained our data from the investigation on health care and career planning of the middle to old age people in Taiwan. The data come from the third investigation in 1996 which include 2,669 sample case and their follow-up studies since1989. There are three objectives for our study:
(1)To understand the status of physical function of the old people in Taiwan (2)To understand the health behavior of the old people in Taiwan
(3)To analyze the correlation between the physical dysfunction and health behavior of the old people in Taiwan
The key findings of our study are as following:
On the physical dysfunction we find that about 10% of the old people have difficulty in their activities in daily living, about 50% of the old people have difficulty in their instrumental activities of daily living, and about 60% of the old people have difficulty in their Nagi Scale. After we removed the difficulty in the activities in daily living and that in the instrumental activities of daily living, we found that about 50% of the old people have difficulty in their Completely Nagi Scale. However, 38.2% of the old people have none of the aforementioned dysfunction.
On the health behavior, we differentiate the effect of health protection behavior and health risk behavior.
We find that people who sleep well and exercise regularly have better physical functionality. (The functional measurements of all four scales are correlated.)
The findings that deviate from our assumptions:
(1)Healthy eating habit is detrimental to the instrumental activities of daily living, the Nagi Scale , and the Completely Nagi Scale. (the odds ratio are 1.465, 1.322, and 1.457 respectively)
(2)People who smoke one pack of cigarette a day have less difficulty in the instrumental activities of daily living and the Nagi Scale. (the odds ratio are 0.643 and 0.683 respectively)
(3)People who drink 10 times a month or less have less difficulty in the activities of daily living, the instrumental activities of daily living, and the Nagi Scale. (the odds ratio are 0.231, 0.642, and 0.683 respectively)
(4)People who chew areca have less difficulty in the activities of daily living and the Completely Nagi Scale. (the odds ratio are 0.607 and 0.482 respectively).
As for the other factors, age, sex, education, and sickness all have major impact on the physical functionality of old people.
We recommend that to study the characteristics of physical dysfunction and health behavior in the future,
people should include factors such as local environment and living pattern of old people. It is also very important to correlate the results with follow-up studies in the future in clarifying the impact of health behavior upon physical dysfunction. This way we can gain a more comprehensive understanding on how to improve and maintain the health of old people.
