• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.31-38
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• 2010

Purpose: We investigated the relationship of depression and the ability to engage in activities of daily living in the elderly. Methods: Subjects (n = 182) were 60 years or older and who attended the Senior College of Gimhae Senior Welfare Center. We collected data via a questionnaire, through a Self- recording method and through individual interviews. We collected data on personal and general characteristics, level of depression, and activities of daily living. Results: Among all subjects, 51.1% reported having depressionMild depression was reported by 29.7% (54 subjects), moderate depression by 13.2% (24 subjects), and severe depression by 8.2% (15 subjects). Activities of daily living, including walking, climbing stairs, standing from a chair and sitting on and using toilets, using a telephone, bathing, shopping, cleaning house, and managing money were significantly lower in elderly subjects who were depressed (p<0.05). The greater the level of depression, the less able they were to engage in activities of daily living. Conclusion: These findings may help us achieve early detection of depression in the elderly and provide mediated arbitration so that they can have better health condition and greater ability to engage in activities of daily living.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.9 no.11
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• pp.22-27
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• 2019

Along with the universalization of smartphones, smartphone addiction is becoming a physical and mental social problem. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relevance of the problems caused by addiction in 300 adolescents, adults and the elderly. The results showed that the use of SNS and messenger were most related to the negative factors such as health problems, depression, antisocial, schizophrenia, lower self-esteem, and lower social expectation. In addition, games and videos were analyzed to have relatively low negative problems. Focusing on the high addiction rate, the researcher further analyzed the preference for problem solution and discussed the improvement measures for smartphone addiction reduction.

• PNF and Movement
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.41-46
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• 2012

Purpose : This study investigated the effect of 4 weeks training of virtual reality game on balance and gait ability, depression of elderly people. Methods : The subjects of this study were 12 elderly people over 65 age. The subjects were treated by training using virtual reality gam (during 60 minutes, 3 times a week for 4 weeks). The results of the experiment were analyzed using paired T-test along with averages and standard deviations as the statistical methods for data analyses. Results : In comparison of depression, gait and balance ability between pre-test and post-test, there were statistically significant differences. Conclusion : Our study finding indicate that training using virtual reality game could improve balance and gait ability, depression in elderly people. According to our study, training using virtual reality game is judged to be used for elderly people with gait and balance problems, depression to prevent fall down.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.9 no.11
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• pp.475-486
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• 2009

Regular activity program is needed for managing chronic disease and obesity and preventing falls as a nursing intervention. It seems that serious game will be very important for older people to keep them active with fun to improve their health. This study was conducted to explore the correlations between health problems and computer game needs in the elderly. This was a cross-sectional study. A questionnaire was developed and administered to a convenience sample of adults who are older than 55 years, recruited from several places through trained research assistants and research center that has online pools in Korea. 778 subjects (mean age: $61.4\;{\pm}\;5.6$) were participated in this study. The majority of subjects was male (68.6%). We found that there was higher needs for exercise or serious game in the group of ma1e(55.4%), below undergraduate(66.2%), under two family members(32.5%), over 350,000 won of pocket money/month (40.1%), mild depressive symptom (51.7%), and online responser(68%). Especially, they wanted to overcome physical limitations through games. Higher education, more experiences and skills of using computer/internet was statistically and positively significant to the needs for exercise or serious game. In conclusion, there exists a potential market within this demographic group for the use of serious games. Thus, we need to develop senior games in Korean to improve quality of life and health promotion.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.314-321
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• 2019

Based on data obtained from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) conducted by Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (KCDC), this study analyzed the relationship between existence of the spouse, number of family members, and disease afflictions of the Korean elderly, and factors affecting their quality of life. The collected data were analyzed by Chi-square test, t-test and One-way Anova, using the SPSS / WIN 25. Our comparative analysis on the health status and quality of life revealed that individuals in the singles group had significantly more diseases than the married group. The singles group considered their health was subjectively poor, whereas the quality of life of the married group was higher. Analyzing the characteristics of chronic disease and activity restriction showed significantly higher prevalence of several diseases in the singles group. Besides, the singles group revealed significantly higher limitations of activity. Taken together, our results reveal a difference in the health status, quality of life, and the presence of chronic diseases in accordance to existence of the spouse, indicating that having a spouse increases the level of health and quality of life of the elderly.

• 한국노년학
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.325-345
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is a exploratory study for understanding the process of the social isolation of the socially isolated elderly through the approach to their life history. The research was analyzed by one of the methods of qualitative research on life history, the conceptual framework of 'Dimensions, turning, and adaptation' of Mandelbaum(1973). According to the results of this study, the socially isolated elderly people were found to be socially isolated by experiencing complex difficulties such as family disconnection, poverty, poor job and health deterioration. Specifically, in the area of life, there was experience of poor relationship with parent, absence of family, poverty of family and unfavorable relationship with surrounding people in life with original family before isolation. They had bad jobs in the labor market, such as hard labor, delivery, business, and chores. In the area of turning point, we experienced family break due to the separation of the original family and the spouse due to various reasons such as financial crisis, parental divorce and death, spouse affair, economic difficulty. In a transitional stage in the life, many reasons such as the financial crisis, the death of parents, the extramarital affair and economic difficulties led to the disconnection from their original family and their spouses. In an adaptive phase, participants accepted the changed life at each turning point in their lives, carrying out their roles, compromising and trying to adapt properly. He said that their current life, which has entered the social safety net system of the people's basic recipients, has led him to live a more stable life and is adapting to personal hobbies and vicarious satisfaction through networks. This result is somewhat different from previous studies in which isolated elderly people were severely exposed to the risk of depression and loneliness. However, we should also consider the characteristics of this study that interviewed elderly people with relatively low isolation. Based on the results of this research, he presented various practical policy implications.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.261-268
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• 2022

Recently, the number of elderly living alone suffering from loneliness and depression is also increasing significantly due to the rapid aging of the population and nuclear families. In this paper, we propose a smart aging system that increases life satisfaction by providing the elderly with the optimal service tailored to the elderly with the help of IT according to their residential environment and health status. It is possible to provide an advanced customized support system for the elderly by fully utilizing IoT, AI, and Metaverse techniques not only for the elderly who want to live an active life in society but also for the elderly who need care in a nursing hospital. The proposed system provides human satisfaction by providing social connection in real space and virtual space in accordance with the residential environment and health status to the elderly suffering from loneliness in hospital (hospital care) facilities and at home. This paper proposes a new path for future-oriented welfare policy for the elderly by providing a user-customized smart aging system by combining AI and Metaverse technology with a rapidly changing social environment.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.71-81
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• 2013

Facial expressions decide an image for the individual, and the ability to interpret emotion from facial expressions is the core of human relations, hence recognizing emotion through facial expression is important enough to change attitude and decisions between individuals within social relations. Children with unstable attachment development, seniors, autistic group, ADHD children and depression group showed low performance results in facial expression recognizing ability tasks, and active interventions with such groups anticipates possibilities of prevention and therapeutic effects for psychological disabilities. The quantified figures that show detailed change in position of lips, eyes and cheeks anticipates for possible applications in diverse fields such as human sensibility ergonomics, korean culture and art contents, therapeutical and educational applications to overcome psychological disabilities and as methods of non-verbal communication in the globalizing multicultural society to overcome cultural differences.

• Journal of the Korean society of biological therapies in psychiatry
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.184-193
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• 2018

Objectives : This study investigated the effects of social support and chronic medical conditions on depressive symptoms in elderly people living alone in a rural community. Methods : Sociodemographic information on 173 subjects aged 65 years or older who lived alone in a rural community and were recipients of National Basic Livelihood Security was collected and analyzed. All participants completed the Korean Form of the Geriatric Depression Scale and the Lubben Social Network Scale. Additionally, the current prevalence of chronic medical conditions that interfere with the activities of daily living was examined. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to analyze the associations of social support and chronic medical conditions with depressive symptoms. Results : Social support(odds ratio: OR, 0.96; 95% confidence interval: 95% CI, 0.92-0.99) and chronic medical conditions(OR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.23-2.05) were significantly associated with depressive symptoms in all subjects. When analyzed by gender, social support served as a protective factor against depressive symptoms in elderly men only(OR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.83-0.99), and chronic medical conditions increased the risk of depressive symptoms in elderly women only(OR, 1.74; 95% CI, 1.26-2.40). Furthermore, osteoarthritis and lumbar pain were risk factors for depressive symptoms in all subjects(OR, 2.24; 95% CI, 1.10-4.56 and OR, 2.10; 95% CI, 1.08-4.12) and in elderly women(OR, 4.07; 95% CI, 1.68-9.84 and OR, 3.34; 95% CI, 1.47-7.57), respectively. Conclusion : This study indicates that improving the social support and managing the chronic medical conditions of elderly people living alone are important for the prevention of depression in this population. Additionally, the present results suggest that it is necessary to establish different depression-prevention strategies for elderly men and women living alone.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.524-537
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• 2017

This study examined the relationship between the sociodemographic characteristics, health related factors, physical functions (ADL, IADL), mental functions (CES-D, MMSE-K), oral health impact profile (OHIP-14), and the quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) for the elderly in long-term care facilities. The research was conducted in 602 facility allowance beneficiaries authorized to be eligible for long-term care in long-term care facilities through personal interviews using a structured questionnaire from May 1 to June 30, 2016. As a result, the quality of life was lower among females than males in the group receiving government subsidies than the group whose livelihood was maintained by themselves or their children, in the group with a longer period of care, in the drinking group than the non-drinking group, in the group with irregular exercise than the regular exercise, in the group with irregular meals than regular meals, in the group with poor subjective health conditions than good subjective health condition, in the group with a smaller number of daily toothbrushing, in the group with xerostomia than no xerostomia, in the group with a lower OHIP-14, in the group with a lower ADL and IADL, and in the group with a lower CES-D and MMSE-K. In particular, the quality of life was affected more by health-related factors and CES-D and MMSE-K than by other factors. Therefore, it is necessary to make efforts to prevent depression and cognitive impairment, including health-related behavior, with the objective of improving the quality of life for the elderly in long-term care facilities.