The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of an exercise program on the health status and depression in the elderly.

The research design was a nonequivalent control group pre-post test design. The exercise program (experimental group) consisted of 22 elderly over a period exercising for 12weeks, 3 days/week. The phone counselling about exercise and health(control group) was applied for 12 weeks for 10-15minutes/day/week. To identify the health status SF-36 was utilized and the GDS was used for depressionanalysis. The data was collected from May 2001 to July 2001.

The effect of the exercise appeared significant in the subarea of health status (physical function, physical role, mental health, general health) and depression. The effect of the phone counselling was appeared significant in subarea of health status - bodily pain. The effect of the exercise and the phone counselling did not appear significant.

The exercise designed for the elderly promotes health in the elderly and further evaluation about the effect on exercise and phone counselling is needed.