J Korean Acad Adult Nurs.  1998 Apr;10(1):160-171.

A Study on the Health Status of Adult Women in Rural Area

• Shin KR

Abstract

Compared to urban communities, rural districts are in lack of medical service. With an increasing population of old aged people and low economical income, the demand for reinforcing health organizations is growing. Woman's health is expecially an important source of their family members' lives. Public health policies and studies for women's health, however, have emphasized only child-maternal health to want general covering and studies of health and wellness. Particularly study of women's health in rural area is almost rare that personal, material benefits in this area lack quantity, amount of women's labor is big, and basic elements of living such as diet and elimination are irregular, due to the range of the tide thus has many potential health problems. In this regard, this study attempted to grasp the health problems of adult women in rural area and to provide bases for developing health promotion and health education programs. In collecting data for this study, face to face interviews were made through a structured questionnaire from January to April 1 in 1998. And collected data were analyzed with SAS statistics program, descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA. Subjects' health status were examined by classifying into such as their health perception, complained health problem, smoking, alcohol intake, substance abuse, health behavior, comprehensive medical testing, muscle strength and stretching, and the result of examination is follows : 1. As for subjects' health perception, 1.47% of the subject answered that 'not sick but not so healthy' 27.94% thought they were healthy, while 69.7% answered they were not healthy. 2. As for the complained health problem, many complained pains in the muscle and skeletal system, especially back pain, finger joint and knee joint pain. Women's health problems related with the breast and reproductive system include case of 52.26% of receiving the breast self examination while 56.55% of receiving the cervical cancer screening test. 3. As for the rate of smoking, 1.47% used to smoke while 40.30% used to intake alcohol. 4. Rate of substance abuse was 46.03% of the subject. 5. Rate of subjects receiving the comprehensive medical testing was 36.76% while 63.24% did afterward managing behaviors. 6. 47% of subjects' muscle strength and 13% of stretching were not good enough to need the health education on physical exercises. Therefore, based on this result, appropriate health education programs require to be developed to promote the adult women's health in rural area.

MeSH Terms

Adult*
Back Pain
Breast
Breast Self-Examination
Diet
Exercise
Female
Finger Joint
Hand Strength
Health Behavior
Health Education
Health Promotion
Humans
Knee Joint
Mass Screening
Muscle Strength
Maternal Health
Public Health
Rural Population
Smoke
Smoking
Substance-Related Disorders
Uterine Cervical Neoplasms
Women's Health
Surveys and Questionnaires
Smoke