Although advances in medical care have enabled many older people to live for long time, unfortunately, these increases in longevity are not always accompanied by good physical health, and many older persons suffer from various chronic disease that adv ...
Although advances in medical care have enabled many older people to live for long time, unfortunately, these increases in longevity are not always accompanied by good physical health, and many older persons suffer from various chronic disease that adversely affect theair quality of life. While some people experience relatively rapid declines in functional and physiological, psychological functioning as they grow older, others undergo remarkably less-pronounced deteriorations over time. For example, Korea and Japan are close neighbors geographically and have similar cultures, but life expectancy for both countries in 2006 has been much longer in Japan than in Korea. There is now ample evidence to indicate that sedentary life style are the most prevalent risk factor for choronic disease in idustrialized countries. Nonetheeless, there have been few comparative studies between the two countries.The purpose of this study was to assess the differences between Korean and Japanese elderly women using body composition, activity of daily living, physical activity level, and health-related physical fitness. The participants included in this investigation were 200 Korean and 197 Japanese older women ranging in age from 65-87 years lived in semiurban or urban areas closed to Seoul and Tokyo. The participants were recruited from senior exercise program. All participants were volunteers, and included both Korean and Japanese women from a variety of socio-economic background, but excluded those who could not independently manage such daily activities as shopping, eating, bathing, or dressing. The all test items chosen were selected in order to various dimensions of ADL functioning and health-related physical fitness including functional reach, step test, 5 m walking, 5 times chair sit and stand, tandem balance, timed up and go, dynamic agility, sit and reach in sitting, grip strength. Measurement of coronary risk factors blood pressure, body fat, muscle volume using Physion XP was conducted on same day as the health-related physical fitness assessment. Our questionnaire including Barthel index, Lawton index, habitual physical activity, subjective health index results confirmed that Japanese elderly were engaging in more vigorous physical activity for a longer duration and at a higher frequency compared to Korean elderly. Means and standard deviations were computed for all variables. Pearson's product-moment correlation was used to assess the univariate relationship among variables. One-way analysis of variance, t-test, principal component analysis were used to test the significance of the differences between two countries using Windows SPSS 15.0 and statistical significance was set at p<.05 in all analyses. It can be concluded from this study, 1) the advancing age significantly affects functional performance for almost all test items in older women of both countries, 2) that the higher functional fitness level reflects a lifestyle of more engagement in physical activity with a longer duration, and higher frequency, 3) that the instrument called functional fitness score is assessed valid for discriminating between Korean and Japanese older women. A most interesting finding resulted from this study suggests that seven year difference in life expectancy commonly reported in population studies with Korean and Japanese older women corresponds to difference in functional fitness score. Japanese women are likely to have relatively higher economic and social status than Korean women, and this might indirectly contributed in part to having a greater opportunity to engage in active physical activity and exercise program, theryby allowing them to obtain higher functional status.