European Journal of Preventive Medicine 2015; 3(2): 22-25 Published online February 14, 2015 (http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ejpm) doi: 10.11648/j.ejpm.20150302.12 ISSN: 2330-8222 (Print); ISSN: 2330-8230 (Online) Relationship of Physical, Emotional Health Variables and Functional Health Status of the Elderly in Asaba, Delta State Lokoyi Ose Lovet Osita Department of General Studies, Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria Email address: saintloveth@gmail.com To cite this article: Lokoyi Ose Lovet Osita. Relationship of Physical, Emotional Health Variables and Functional Health Status of the Elderly in Asaba, Delta State. European Journal of Preventive Medicine. Vol. 3, No. 2, 2015, pp. 22-25. doi: 10.11648/j.ejpm.20150302.12 Abstract: Functional health status is the level of activities performed by an individual to realize needs of daily living in many aspects of life including physical, psychological, social, spiritual and intellectual roles. Level of performance is expected to correspond to normal expectation in the individual's nature, structure and conditions. Researching into the functional health status of the senior citizens will aid in designing a worthwhile health education programme for them. The few health-related studies carried out on the senior citizens in Asaba have not addressed their functional health status. Therefore, this study examined physical functioning, role limitations due to physical health, role limitations due to emotional problems, energy/fatigue, emotional well-being, social functioning, pain and general health as determinants of functional health status of the senior citizens in Asaba, Delta State. The study used descriptive survey research design. The sample aged 64.93 ± 11.57years in average were two hundred and fourteen (214) drawn through multistage sampling techniques from five local government areas in Asaba, Delta State. Functional Health Status was assessed using the Medical Outcomes Trust Short Form 36 (SF-36) Health Status Questionnaire that has internal consistency reliability results based on Alpha levels to range from 0.42 to 0.91. Eight hypotheses were tested and data were analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics of frequency count, percentage, mean and standard deviation as well as non-parametric statistics of chi-square (X 2 ) at 0.05 level of significance. Results showed that physical functioning (X 2 =423.87, p<0.05), role limitations due to emotional problems (X 2 =8.46, p<0.05), energy/fatigue (X 2 =148.12, p<0.05), emotional well-being (X 2 =616.36, p<0.05), social functioning (X 2 =25.30, p<0.05), pain (X 2 =26.30, p<0.05) and general health (X 2 =520.78, p<0.05) were significant determinants while role limitations due to physical health was not a significant determinant of functional health status of the senior citizens in Asaba, Delta State. It was concluded that the content of health education programme for the senior citizens should strongly take the factors examined into consideration. Keywords: Physical functioning, Role limitations, Social functioning, Pain, General health 1. Introduction Functional health status reflects the ability to move and perform desired tasks without pain or injury. It is a unique category of health focusing on the mechanical well-being of the body of an individual. In contrast to the more traditional categories of health that includes general medical, cardiovascular and mental, functional status concerns with those elements that directly responsible for our physical function: muscles, bones, joints, and nerves [1]. Functional status is a systematic and standardized approach to a person’s wellness status which takes the pattern of health management, nutrition, excretory function, exercise activity pattern, cognitive function, sleep and rest pattern, self-concept, role relationship [2]. Others include sexuality pattern, coping with stress and tolerance pattern as well as value and belief pattern. Health status of the elderly as perceived by the individual and indicated by objective measures, is associated with subsequent retirement from active career as documented in a number of studies [3, 4]. The mental health functioning declined among the elderly who continued to work, but improved among the senior individuals even after adjusting for differences in baseline health functioning [5]. It should be noted, however, that this improvement was only found among those of the highest socioeconomic status. Older adults can live longer, healthier lives by staying