PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to analyze the functional status of low income elderly living at home according to their socio-economic factors, sensory function, health status, medical service utilization, commodity and types of chronic disease.
METHOD
Functional status was defined by the level of mobility, ADL and IADL categorized as independently functional, mildly impaired, moderately disabled, and severely disabled. The data was collected by home-visit interviews with 567 community dwelling adults who were 65 years of age or more with low a income status subsidized by government in ChonAn.
RESULTS
9.9% of community dwelling older adults were severely disabled, and 44.4% were moderately disabled in their functional status. There were significant differences in the functional status by age, education, religion, and types of family structure. The older adults with hearing impairment or dental problems had a significantly higher rate of severe disability. Self-rated health status and medical service utilization were also significant factors to the differences in functional status. The functional status of older adults was also significantly related to the presence of chronic health problems such as chronic back pain, stroke, and Alzheimer-dementia.
CONCLUSION
The results confirmed that community dwelling older adults with low income status were more functionally disabled in comparison to general older adults at national level, while the relating factors to their functional status seemed similar to other studies on older adults. Further studies were suggested to look into functional status longitudinally and focus on the changes of functional status by managing modifiable influencing factors.

The purpose of this study was to examine the health status of the daughter and daughter- in-law caregivers who care for a cognitively and/or functionally impaired elderly, individual to identify factors that were related to reported health outcomes, and to investigate the negative and positive impacts of family caregiving. Data was collected from 120 daughter and daughter-in-law caregivers and care-recipients using face to face interviews. Most caregivers were daughters- in-law (77.5%) and most care-recipients were female (88.3%). Sixty-eight percent (n=81) of caregivers reported depressive symptomatology. General health also deteriorated by caregiving. Caregivers reported several negative impacts (difficulties): care-recipients' problematic behaviors, deterioration of their own health, pressure from social norms related to family caregiving in Korea, intrafamily conflict, and economic problems. Contrary to the popular belief, caregivers reported diverse positive impacts of family caregiving (68.3%): a sense of filial responsibilities, recognition from elderly, family members, relatives, and society, education for the children, and familial harmony. Higher depression score was predicted by lower family income, the presence of cognitive impairment of care-recipients, and higher level of social conflict of caregivers. Poor general health of caregivers was predicted by older caregivers' age, lower competing roles of caregivers, and poor emotional health. While not seeking to deny the negative aspects of family caregiving, it is also necessary to understand positive aspects of family caregiving to see complete picture of caring for an elderly family member.