Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to identify the health status and request of community residents. This study is part of development of efficient health life enhancement programs.
METHODS
The subjects of this study were 586 households in a rural community and well-trained interviewers visited every household in the designated area and individually interviewed heads of households for general information and health service utilization. The data were collected using a questionnaire for seven months from March 25 to September 24, 2002. The data were analyzed using frequency, percentage by SPSSWIN (v 10.0).
RESULTS
1. 58.9% of subjects were above sixty, and 60.8% of them were women. 2. The most serious problems they identified were health problems (45.6%), and the second was(##-was +were) economic problems(22.0%). 3. Almost half of the study population regarded themselves as healthy (46.2%). The types of illness they had were neuralgia, arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease. 4. Most of the study population answered that they didn't do anything special for health enhancement. 5. Among medical facilities, hospitals or medical clinics (55.3%) were most commonly utilized when they were sick. 6. The highest request of the subjects was 'Home visiting service (45.4%)', and 'free treatment connected to the service of hospitals' was the second. What they needed most regarding health enhancement programs in health life enhancement centers was 'free health examination (58.2%), and heath education programs (57.7%). 7. As a result of investigating the subjects' demand for nursing services in health life enhancement center, 'the clinical examination' was the most requested, and next was 'blood pressure check', 'emergency treatment', and 'rehabilitation service', in that order.