Sleep disturbance is a typical health problem of the elderly. The purpose of this study was to explore the extent of sleep disturbance of Korean elderly, and to identify the influencing and predicting factors. A total of 15216 subjects were interviewed. To measure the quality of sleep, "The Korean Sleep" Scale was used, and as influencing factors on sleep, physical health, emotional and social activity variables were included. In this study, the percentage of a change of sleep pattern was 59.2%, and it was higher in elderly women and in above 80 yrs. But only 10.4% of subjects regarded a change of sleep pattern as a problem, and it was higher in elderly women. Total sleeping time was shorter in female and it was shortest in 65-69yrs. The higher age, the presence of Ds, the longer sickdays, the lower level of ADL and IADL, the more depressive, the more tedious during the daytime, and the less frequent engagement in exercise, the lower quality of sleep measured by KSS. Predicting variables of quality of sleep included depression, boredness during the daytime, sex, the presence of Ds, IADL, the frequency of exercise during a week, and age. These seven variables explained 13% of total quality of sleep. The extent of change of sleep pattern in the elderly is very high. Continuous efforts to increase quality of sleep of the elderly by intervening in factors influencing quality of sleep are needed.
This study was conducted to explore the relationship between isoflavones intake from soy foods and perimenstrual symptoms among women.
The research design was a cross sectional study. Subjects consisted of 245 women living in Korea, aged 19-49 years. The measurement tools were MDQ and FFQ.
Frequently consumed soy isoflavones foods were rice with soybeans, soybean paste stew, and soy paste with tofu. The amounts of soy isoflavones foods consumed in order from highest to lowest were rice with soybeans, soybean paste stew, seasoned soybean sprouts, and soy paste with tofu. Subjects were divided into three groups by isoflavones intake levels; the small intake group, moderate intake group, and large intake group. There were significant differences in some menstrual symptoms, and postmenstrual symptoms by isoflavones intake levels. In general, the moderate isoflavones intake group showed lower scores in some menstrual symptoms and postmenstrual periods compared to the small and large intake groups.
These results suggest some positive health effects of isoflavones from soy foods on perimenstrual symptoms. More accurate, objective measurement needs to be applied and more investigation of soy isoflavones effects on many aspects of women's health need to be done in a future study.