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Purpose: This study was to investigate the prevalence of depressive symptoms and risk factors in elderly people (old vs oldest-old) with arthritis., Methods: The Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA) was used with a sample of 1,084 elderly people with arthritis aged 65 or above., Results: We found that the prevalence of depressive symptom was greater for oldest-old people (66.7%) compared to old people (56%). Significant differences between old people and oldest-old people were found for education, living with spouse, number of generation, regular exercise, body mass index (BMI), ADL limitation, self-rated health, and depression. Significant differences existed between depression and non-depression in terms of all variables except region and BMI among old people. But, among the oldest people, ADL limitation and self-rated health showed differences. The Logistic regression analysis revealed that religion, medical comorbidity, ADL limitation, self-rated health were significantly associated with depressive symptoms in old people. But, in oldest-old people, none of the variables were associated with depressive symptoms., Conclusion: The findings show that there are age differences in depression and related factors in elderly people with arthritis. Longitudinal studies, which covered depressive symptom severity and which are controlled for a large number of potential confounders, will need to complement the results of this study in the future.

Based on the health conception viewed from the literature on nursing and by the clients, health is defined as a living experience, or as a perception of wellness in this study. That is, it is the perceived wellness that the individual obtains by wholistically integrating all dimensions of health where ever the individual stands in the health continuum. Thus health exists independently, regardless of illness or disability, because the individual is able to perceive the wellness within limitations imposed to him/her. Also, based on the health conception defined in this study and the literature review on health promotion, health promotion is defined as the process of enhancing the perception of wellness (i.e., living experience), where ever the individual stands in the health continuum. Therefore, health promotive care represents the process of making client help himself to improve health experience/perception of wellness by selecting and/or integrating the individual or social health parameters (determinants) based on his reality. After analyzing the data which is provided from the related literature and the results from the descriptive/exploratory research on this group of clients, and then applying those analysis results to the PRECEDE model, planning process for health promotion program is established. However, as planning process is only based on data from literature in the first stage, it will be modified appropriately according to the assessment feedback from the direct participation of client in the following study. Based on the planning model refined through this assessment process, health promotion program is to be developed, implemented and evaluated. Planning process of health promotion for clients with arthritis is begun from the assessment of health outcome as the first phase. It is analyzed from this study that clients with arthritis indicates lower quality of life/satisfaction than the other groups from the several research findings indicate. In the second phase, according to the analysis results in the first phase, clients' health problems (perceived seriousness about illness, uncertainty in illness, helplessness, difficulty of movement), which affect the low quality of life, are identified and then program objective for each problem is demonstrated. As an objective for the perceived seriousness about illness, relief of the mistrust on the general effects of treatment for illness is determined through appropriate data analysis. And clients' accumulation of accurate knowledge on the nature of illness is determined as an objective, for reducing uncertainty in the illness. Also enhancement of distraction ability and self-efficacy perception is defined as objectives for reducing physical, psychological and social helplessness.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)