Comprehensive geriatric assessment for community-dwelling elderly in Asia compared with those in Japan:II. Hongchon in Korea

Abstract

Background: The objective of the present study is to compare the findings of comprehensive geriatric assessment between community-dwelling elderly people in Korea and in Japan.

Methods: A cross-sectional, interview- and examination-based study was undertaken of community-dwelling elderly people living in a rural district, Hongchon, in Korea and in a rural town, Sonobe, in Kyoto in Japan. Two hundred and thirty-eight community-dwelling elderly people aged 60 years and over in Korea and 411 aged 65 years and over in Kyoto, Japan were examined using a common comprehensive geriatric assessment tool. Interviews concerning activities of daily living (ADL), medical and social history, quality of life (QOL) and the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale were conducted as well as anthropometric and blood chemical examinations. Findings from the two groups were compared using unpaired T-test and χ2 test.

Results: All examined ADLs except for the social ADL were significantly lower in Korean elderly subjects than in Japanese. Only the mean social ADL score of each group showed no difference. The prevalence of depression assessed by the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale was higher in Korean elderly subjects than in Japanese. Scores for QOL indices were lower in the Korean subjects than in the Japanese. Korean subjects showed higher mean body mass indices, blood sugar concentrations and prevalences of impaired glucose tolerance than Japanese. Mean age, sex ratio and living situation (living alone or not, etc.) were not significantly different between the two groups.

Conclusion: Comparative features of comprehensive geriatric assessment of community-dwelling elderly between Korea and Japan were reported. Although both are highly economically developed countries in Asia, it was revealed that elderly Korean subjects were in poorer condition with regard to such ADLs as those relating to basic activities, information, instrumental and intellectual ones, in comparison with Japanese subjects. The one exception was the social ADL. At the same time, Korean subjects showed a higher prevalence of depression and lower scores for QOL. A high prevalence of impaired glucose tolerance in Korea was noteworthy. We assumed psychosocial rather than biological factors had produced such diversities.