A Review of Health Promotion Program for the Elderly

Gu, Mee Ock

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to suggest directions for developing a Health Promotion Program for the elderly in Korea for the future. For this, twenty previously developed & implemented health promotion programs were reviewed and analyzed in terms of target population of the program, components of the program, measurement variables for effects of program, the effects of the program. The results were as follows. 1. Most of the target populations were older adults living independently in the community. 2. Components of the program were health education, health assessment and counseling and exercise program. - Health education was done in most of programs. The topics of health education that were often included in the programs were life style changes, medical knowledge, independent living, the concept of health promotion and changes related to aging. - In health assessment and counseling, health professionals discovered their health problems through health assessment or health risk appraisal. Then they developed health recommendations on each health problem and encouraged the elderly to implement the recommendations. 3. Variables measuring the direct effects of the program were health behavior, knowledge, attitude, skill, use of medical/health reference book. Variables measuring the indirect effects, biometric outcome, health status, functional status, medical service utilization, medical cost and wellbeing. 4. The analysis showed that health education was effective for changing health behaviors, improving knowledge, skill and attitude in the elderly. Those results were suggested to be used as guidelines for developing a health promotion program for the elderly in Korea for the future.