A Survey on the Meaning in Life of Elderly People

Jung, Yu Jin; Shin, Kyung Il; Choi, Soon Ock

Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to measure meaning in life of elderly and to delineate basic data for developing nursing strategies for improving the meaning in life of elderly. METHOD: Subjects were 240 elderly above 65 years old staying in Busan and Kyungnam Province. The data was collected from May to Jun 2004. The instrument was utilizing Elderly Meaning In Life(EMIL) scale developed by Choi et al.(2003).
RESULTS
The mean for elderly was 100.4, the range was from 37 to 148. 63.3% of subjects were in existential vacuum. The mean of 1 phase 'acceptance and awareness of self and life' was 36.9, 2 phase 'creative value realization' was 17.8, 3phase 'experiential value realization' was 2.8, 4 phase 'contentedness of past and present' was 43.7. There were significant differences according to the gender, religion, educational level, spouse, spending money, living arrangement and disease.
CONCLUSION
On the viewpoint of above results, 63.3% of subjects were in level of existential vacuum, which required logotherapy. Therefore it shows that developing nursing-logotherapy to improve the meaning in life for elderly is demanded.