Health status of the rural elderly
Health status of the rural elderly
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1748-0361.2001.tb00282.x
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发表时间：
2001-09-01
影响因子：
4.9
通讯作者：
Kalache, A
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kumar, V;Acanfora, M;Kalache, A
世界上很大一部分老年人生活在农村地区，健康状况差异很大。许多人，特别是发展中国家的人，主要由于服务提供不足和经济贫困，在社会经济和卫生方面更容易被边缘化。与城市老年人一样，运动、视力和听力残疾以及威胁生命的冠心病、糖尿病和高血压在农村老年人中也很常见。感染继续在世界许多地区造成严重伤亡。据报告，在美国等发达国家，农村老年人的健康和功能障碍以及久坐不动和目前吸烟等风险因素的发生率较高，而在这些国家，农村老年人使用某些预防服务的频率也较低。幸福和健康与诸如与家人生活在一起、有孩子和社区参与等变量之间的正相关性，来自加纳和印度等发展中国家的报告，支持了联合家庭系统和终身社会和身体活动的历史悠久的价值的有用性-所有这些都有助于促进健康的老龄化。因此，这些传统美德需要得到维护和加强。有效的老年保健服务需要强调社区对初级保健的做法，并为家庭照顾者和专业人员提供支持和培训。此外，还需要强调促进健康、成本效益高的土著医药系统和对性别问题敏感的方案。
An enormous proportion of the world's elderly live in rural areas and show wide variations in health status. Many, particularly those in the developing countries, are vulnerable to greater socioeconomic and health marginalization mainly due to inadequate provision of services and economic deprivation. As with the urban elderly, locomotor, visual and hearing disabilities, as well as life-threatening conditions of coronary heart disease, diabetes and hypertension are common among rural elders also. Infections continue to take a heavy toll in many parts of the world. Higher prevalence of health and functioning impairments and of risk factors like sedentarism and current smoking have been reported for the rural elderly in developed countries like the United States, where less frequent use of certain preventive services also has been observed among the rural elderly. The positive association of well-being and health with variables such as living with family, having children, and community involvement, which has been reported from developing countries like Ghana and India, supports the usefulness of the time-honored value of joint family systems and lifelong social and physical activity-all known to foster healthy aging. Such traditional virtues therefore need to be preserved and strengthened. Effective geriatric health care services need to stress a community approach to primary health care, with provision of support and training for both family caregivers and professionals. In addition, emphasis on health promotion, cost-effective indigenous systems of medicine and gender-sensitive programs is needed.