Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the factors related to self-assessed physical fitness and life style of elderly patients with chronic respiratory failure. The subjects were 99 people (60 men and 39 women) who participated in breathing classes conducted at seven public health centers in Aomori Prefecture. After explaining the purpose of the investigation to the subjects, the subjects were instructed to fill out questionnaires. The items investigated were sex, age, underlying disease, hospitalization in the past year, percent vital capacity (%VC), transcutaneous arterial oxygen saturation, and body mass index (BMI). It was found that self- assessment of physical fitness by the subjects was closely related to %VC and BMI and also closely related to two aspects of life style, walking status and drinking status, which were thought to depend on %VC. The results suggest that self - assessment of physical fitness, one of the indexes of subjective health, must be taken into account in order to provide appropriate guidance regarding life style.
