| Keywords |
Mobility limitation ; Depression ; Low-income ; Elderly women |
| Abstract |
This study aimed to understand factors related with mobility limitation among low-income elderly women. Subjects included 134 basic livlihood security recipients who were 65 or older women in S-gu, Seoul and agreed to our visit. Mobility limitation were measured by self-reports. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify relative contributing factors in mobility difficulty. Mobility limitations among low-income elderly women showed 60.4% in ‘walking up 10 stairs without resting’, 57.5% in ‘lifting or carrying a bag of rice, 8 kg’ and 48.5% in ‘walking 400 m’. There were significant differences in mobility limitations by age, discomfort, self-rated health, physical activity, depression. The odds ratios (OR) for aging were 1.1 times-12.5 times. Subjects reporting discomfort were more likely to develop mobility difficulty than those reporting no discomfort (OR=1.6-22.9). Relative to the good health or person in doing physical activity, the poor health (OR=2.1-6.0), not doing physical activity (OR=1.3-4.0) were more likely to develop mobility difficulty. Low-income elderly women feeling moderate or severe depression were more likely to develop mobility limitation (OR=1.1-5.0). On the basis of understanding to knowledge of the mobility limitation among low-income elderly women, prevention program activities for disability need to address characteristics of them in mobility difficulty. Also, for developing evidence based program, further study was suggested to look into mobility limitation longitudinally. |