Development of Health Behavior Assessment Tool of the Korean Elders

Choi, Young Hee; Kim, Soon Yi

Abstract

This project was conducted using a survey method and through interviewing with four persons aged 60 years and over. An interview with an open-ended questionnaire was also used for elderly persons, families, oriental medicine doctor and nurses. topic-related literature review was also done. In total, 382 statements were derived. For content validity, nursing professionals were involved in this study. From that 48 items are developed. The subjects were 340 elderly persons over 60 years old. Data were collected during February and March 1997 and analyzed using the SPSS package The result are as follows. 1. Items with low Cronbach Coefficient alpha which means low correlation with total items were removed. 2. Factor analysis was done in order to confirm construct validity and eight factors were obtained from the results. The first factor, 'positive cognition of the aging process', the second factor, 'relationship network' the third factor, 'maintenance of physical functioning, the fourth factor', 'maintenance of peaceful mind' the fifth factor, 'keeping up with daily tasks' the sixth factor, 'continuous adequate body movement' the seventh factor, 'involvement of religion in the elderly person's life and the eight factor', 'appropriate resting'. Cronbach Coefficient alpha for the 33 items was .9127 Based on the result, the following is suggested 1. It is anticipated that the fundamental health of elderly person could be promoted by assessing healthy behaviors of elderly person with this assessment tool. 2. Further studies could be derived from this research. 3. Validity of this assessment tool should be further tested with and a larger sample of elderly person including in-patient elderly persons as well as nursing home residents.