A Study on the Perception of Communicative Problems and Life Satisfaction of Community-Dwelling Older Adults

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the effects of declining communication function occurring during the natural aging process in community-dwelling older adults on life satisfaction and subjective health status, and to explore demand for speech-language rehabilitation services to provide basic data for clinical intervention. METHODS: De-identified secondary data collected through face-to-face surveys conducted by a speech-language therapist working at a senior welfare center in County A were used. The surveys included 77 older adults aged 60 or older who used the center from May 2024 to May 2025. The survey included communication problems, subjective health status, life satisfaction, and the current status of and demand for rehabilitation treatment, and the strength and direction of relationships between variables were statistically examined using cross-tabulation and correlation analyses. RESULTS: Study participants reported relatively greater difficulties in the domains of hearing and language, and also showed clear difficulties on specific items concerning voice and swallowing. The types of communication problems showed strong positive correlations of moderate or greater magnitude with one another; in particular, cognitive problems showed strong correlations with hearing (0.63) and language (0.65) problems. In addition, most communication problems showed weak negative correlations with life satisfaction and subjective health status. Awareness of speech-language therapy was high at 70.13%, but the actual experience rate (utilization rate) was markedly low at 1.30%, and potential demand was most concentrated on memory improvement (48.05%). CONCLUSIONS: Declining communication function in community-dwelling older adults, particularly in key geriatric domains such as hearing and swallowing problems, was confirmed to be significantly associated with lower life satisfaction. The substantial discrepancy between high awareness of speech-language therapy and low actual utilization suggests a major gap between perceived need and actual service accessibility. Therefore, future speech-language rehabilitation services should expand beyond simple articulation and language correction to a multidimensional approach encompassing improvement of cognitive function and resolution of swallowing problems.