| Author: | Lee, Kam-chee Angela |
| Title: | Health needs, resources for health and health services utilization in a sample of elderly people living alone in Hong Kong |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 2002 |
| Subject: | Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations Older people -- Medical care -- China -- Hong Kong |
| Department: | School of Nursing |
| Pages: | vii, 142 leaves ; 30 cm |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Hong Kong is facing a rising trend of aging population with resultant increase in health needs and health services utilization. Acquiring essential knowledge on the health needs and factors affecting the elderly people's health services utilization and satisfaction of health services are important for the future planning of elderly health services. A descriptive correlational study using face-to-face interview and a sifuctured questionnaire was used to explore the health needs, resources for health, health services utilization and satisfaction of health services of elderly people living alone in Hong Kong. The behavioral model developed by Andersen (1968) formed the theoretical framework for this study. A study sample consists of 24 subjects were selected by stratified random sampling among 189 elderly people living alone in a housing estate of one of the Housing for Senior Citizens in April 2001. Spearman rho correlation coefficient was conducted to determine the relationships among health needs, characteristics of health services utilization (predisposing, enabling and need factors), utilization and satisfaction of health services. The results found that, closely associated with aging, health problems and functional limitations are common among theses elderly people. The elderly people are facing increasing health needs with decreasing resources for health. It was found that the majority of the elderly people relied heavily on the Government health services as they were exempted from payment. This reflects Hong Kong has a relatively equitable health care system. However, dual utilization of public and private health services to complement each other and the prevalence of over-the-counter medications are found common among the elder people especially those having chronic conditions that affect their activities of daily lives, Moreover, the findings demonstrated that the Andersen's behavioral model is of considerable value in associating the predictors of health services utilization among the elderly people. All three factors, predisposing (demographic characteristics), enabling (personal, family and community resources) and need (perceived health status, specific health problems and functional limitations) were found to have significant relationships with the utilization of health services. Satisfaction of health services was significantly related to the number of health problems and the confidence of health services. However, the high level of dissatisfaction expressed by the elderly people indicates that the government health services are still insufficiently attuned to their specific health needs. With the implementation of the health care reform and the reconstruction of the health care system, the government should met the specific needs of those elderly people living alone by enhancing health services utilization as well as satisfaction. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b16416314.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 4.83 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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