How Types of Ageism Affect the Health of Older Koreans?
Although respecting older people was traditionally considered commonplace in family and society, getting older in modern Korea is often associated with unpleasant experiences of personal and institutional age-related discrimination, commonly known as “ageism”. This study aims to examine how Korean elders experienced types of Ageism and how this conversely relates to mental, physical, and self-rated health.
METHODS:
Data was gathered from a clustered sample of 638 people aged 60-89 via face-to-face interviews. Ageism was measured using a 20-item questionnaire from ‘The Ageism Survey’ by Palmore. An exploratory factor analysis was performed to classify various types of Ageism. Health outcomes included depressive symptoms for mental health, using CES-D 20 Questions. Physician-diagnosed hypertension and self-rated health were also recorded.
RESULTS:
Of the 20 Ageism items, the results yielded four factors: ignorance (α=.76), stereotype (α=.80),employment (α=.74), and healthcare (α=.63). Gender, marital status, education, and residence were found to account for some variances in types of Ageism. In the effect of four types of ageism on health, three types— ignorance, streotype, and health care - were all positively related to depressive symptoms. Only employment-related ageism increased the risk of developing hypertension, whereas healthcare-related ageism was significantly associated with poor self-rated health.
CONCLUSIONS:
This study illustrated the differential effects that types of ageism have on the poorer health amongst older Koreans. The harmful impact of ageism on health needs to be better understood with an in depth study on the types of Ageism and the different health outcomes that arise as a result of this