• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.18-30
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• 2021

The ultimate goal of the present study is to establish the acoustical performance standards of classroom for the elderly who are incomplete hearing people. As a pilot survey, the present study was conducted to investigate the listening environment and the actual condition of speech perception performance of education facilities for elderly, Acoustic performances of two education facilities for elderly in Cheongju were measured and questionnaire survey was done to elderly people. Also, speech intelligibility tests were undertaken by Consonant Vowel Consonant (CVC) and Phonetically Balanced Words (PBW) methods. The questionnaire survey showed that the elderly were satisfied with the listening environment of the educational facilities in general. Also, it was found that acoustical performances satisfy with the acoustic criteria of general classrooms in Korea. However, the results of the speech intelligibility test showed that the scores of elderly were significantly lower than twenties with normal hearing. It was also revealed that the scores are reduced as the age increases. Thus, it was concluded that the acoustical performance standards of educational facilities for the normal hearing were not suitable for educational facilities for the elderly.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.97-104
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• 2020

The Purpose of this paper was to explore the effect of hearing impairment on HRQOL in Korean elders. We carry out a cross-sectional analysis using nationally representative data from the KNHANES, 2018. A total of 528 elders who had hearing impairment were included. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 25.0, χ²-test, t-test, correlation, and regression analysis to confirm the quality of life, and the influencing factors. There were significant differences in HRQOL according to gender, age, education, marital status, income, occupation, number of household members, tinnitus, number of comorbidities, smoking status, alcohol drinking status, subjective health status, regular exercise, restriction of activity, depressive mood and perceived stress. The results indicated that age, BMI and number of comorbidities had a significant negative association with HRQOL. In addition, marital status, number of comorbidities, body mass index, subjective health status, regular exercise, restriction of activity and perceived stress were predictors of life quality in elders with Hearing Impairment and the variable in the health-related quality of life was explained by 37.3%. In order to improve the HRQOL of elders with hearing impairment, multidisciplinary efforts and development of educational programs are required.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.207-217
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• 2011

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to garner useful information through a comparative analysis of health behaviors and health states between the young-old and old-old elderly in a rural Korean area. Methods: We define the young-old elderly as those 65 to 74 years of age, and the old-old as those over 70. The survey was administered in October and November of 2009 at senior citizen centers in Sangju City, Kyongsangbuk-do, South Korea. The number of subjects surveyed approximated the demographics of the aged population of the administrative district of centers of 24 eup, myeon, and dong. Results: Compared with the young-old elderly, the old-old were vulnerable to population sociological characteristics. While there were many cases of contraction of diseases, only a small percentage of old-old elderly were engaged in regular exercise. In addition, the old-old elderly lagged behind the young-old in terms of physical activity, mental and oral health, hearing, and vision. Conclusions: The vulnerability of the old-old elderly in terms of physical and mental health needs to be acknowledged as various characteristics of the elderly that appears according an age group. A variety of disease prevention and health promotion programs that focus on the health behavior and status of the young-old and old-old elderly need to be developed and put into practice.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.353-357
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• 2005

Declining auditory performance with advanced age is a well known and common problem that is becoming more Prevalent due to the increasing number of elderly people in our society. We introduce a novel ARCISM (Audiogram Result Computer Input. Save & Management software) data management program which enables the assessment of the risk of past history of hearing impairment on the basis of known risk factors. This study investigates the reference levels of pure tone hearing threshold of normal aging in Korean and the difference between fenders. The subjects were carefully selected by questionnaire and absence of any history of otologic infection, noise exposure. and ototoxic drug among 1603 subjects. who visited Health Promotion Center in Daegu Fatima Hospital for one year. The results show (1) hearing sensitivity declines with age. (2) higher frequency shows steeper slope of hearing declines than lower frequency. and (3) there were more hearing loss at 4 and 8 kHz in men than in women. Due to the ARCISM program. it was possible to manage huge data of hearing results and to obtain the reference level of a9e-related hearing declines. Furthermore, we expect that the results of this study can be the fundamental data for hearing rehabilitation for the elderly and for developing suitable hearing aids for Korean.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.138-144
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• 2017

In this paper, we propose a high frequency boosting circuits compensating for age-related hearing loss. The frequency response of this hearing loss is quite similar to that of a low-pass filter of which the critical frequency get lower with age. Therefore the voltage gain of this compensation circuits increase proportionally to the frequency of signals when the frequency is higher than the critical frequency and the voltage is constant irrespective of the frequency of signals when the frequency is lower than the critical frequency. The proposed circuits consist of a differential circuit and a unity gain amplifier. Because the critical frequency of the proposed circuits is controlled simply in the shape of a volume control lever, the aged people can adjust the high frequency boosting level easily according to one's hearing loss level. The critical frequency is continuously controllable in the whole audible frequency band and the gain of this high frequency boosting circuits is above 80dB at 10kHz.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.313-323
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• 2017

This study is a descriptive study that investigates the factors that affect the frailty of the elderly in the late period. The data were collected using a questionnaire during the period from 1 to 31 of December 2013. The subjects were 301 elderly people aged 70 years living in M city. The data were analyzed using a $x^2$ test, t-test, and ANOVA with the SPSS Statistics 18.0 program. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to examine the factors that affect the weakness of elderly people. The results showed that 15.3% of the elderly living at home were frail. The factors that affect the frailty of the elderly were sex (p<0.01), nutritional status (p<0.01), cognition function (p<0.01), ADL (p<0.01), IADL (p<0.05), visual acuity (p<0.05), and chewing discomfort (p<0.05). A higher the degree of frailty was associated with women, poorer nutritional status, higher impairments to perform the daily activities (ADL and IADL), poorer hearing, and more feeling of chewing discomfort. These results can explain the frailty of elderly people over 70 years of age in a local community and the variables of health. The results suggest that the development of a comprehensive program for the elderly with weak physical, emotional, and functional health should be given priority.

• 한국노년학
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.973-992
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• 2010

The hearing impairment is the representative disorder that affects the quality of the routine life of the aged period. This study was aimed to develop the Korean evaluation scale for hearing handicap(KESHH) with which we can evaluate social and psychological effects of the hearing impairment. Applying this scale clinically, we can analyze the geriatric hearing loss specifically and improve the quality of the aural rehabilitation that can help the hardness of the hearing impairment. Data were collected from 288 participants(176 hearing aid users and 112 non-hearing aid users) and the average age of the participants was 67.4 years old ( 60.15 for the hearing aids users and 78.9 for the non hearing users). The composition ratio of the male and female participants were 58.0% and 42.0% and extrovert and introvert personality were 49.3% and 50.7% showing balanced formation. The tentative draft of KESHH measurements were produced with 30 items and following 5 subscales. Using factor analysis, 6 items were erased and 4 subscales - social effect, psycho/emotional effect, interpersonal effect, and perception of hearing aids - were identified. As each subscale consisted of 6 items, 24 items were corrected and remained totally. Conclusively, the KESHH was developed with 24 items and 4 subscales including 6 items on each subscale. In addition, the KESHH was divided into type-1 and 2 depending on hearing aid users and non hearing aid users. The results of this study can be summarized as the following 5 parts. Firstly, the reliabilities of the KESHH were proved to be high because the subscales' Cronbach alpha values were from 0.723 through 0.895. Secondly, the KESHH showed systematically increasing score as the hearing impairment increased. The lowest score was 24 and the highest score was 117 and the average scores of the hearing impaired and non-hearing impaired are 72.06(SD=15.67) and 66.98(SD=20.94) showing 5.08 increased score for the hearing impaired. Depending on the degree of the hearing loss, the scores recorded 52.63 at the below of the mild hearing loss, 67.29 for the moderate hearing loss, 71.89 for the moderately severe hearing loss, and 75.57 for the severe hearing loss The comparison of the scores by hearing levels indicated that the higher the hearing levels were, the higher the scores of the KESHH with statistical significance(p<0.001). Thirdly, the correlation among 4 subscales was 0.384~0.880(p<0.001). Also, the pure tone average, personality, and the four subscales correlations showed statistical significance with 0.148~0.880 except for the pure tone average and personality and the pure tone average and perception of hearing aids. Fourthly, the total variances explained for the independent subscles were analyzed with multiple regression. The social effect was explained 17.4% with pure tone average, personality, and the status of hearing aid use variances. The psycho/emotional effect was explained 14.4% with puretone average, personality, and age variances. The interpersonal effect was explained 11.2% with pure tone average, personality, and the status of hearing aid use variances. The perception of hearing aids effect was explained 2.2% with only personality. Finally, test-retest reliability was proved to be high with 0.791(p<0.001). Conclusively, the KESHH that was developed considering Korean culture can be a useful instrument for expressing the hearing handicaps of the Korean aged hearing impaired in scores for both hearing aid users and non-users. Also, it is thought that the KESHH is useful clinically for identifying the changes of the hearing handicap scores before and after wearing hearing aids and aural rehabilitation at diverse situations.

• Proceedings of the KOR-BRONCHOESO Conference
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• 1976.06a
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• pp.86.2-86
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• 1976

Authors have performed the audiological analysis in accordance with age, sex, site, duration, cause, ear drums, curve pattern, and hearing level taken from 165 patients (Male; 101, Female; 64) with non-perforated ear drums who had complained hearing impairment. The results are as follows. 1. The audiographic pattern has classified into Normal (30 cases, 18.18%), Flat form (46 cases, 20.6%), Ascending form (5 cases, 3%), Mountain form (9 cases, 5.4%), Basin form (7 cases, 4.2%), Total deaf (24 cases, 14.55%) and Others (10 cases, 6%). 2. In age distribution, the highest is in 3rd decade (50 cases, 30.3%), and the next is in 2nd (43 cases, 26%), 4th (27 cases, 16.3%) in order. 3. Male (101 cases) is more than female (64 cases) giving ratio of 1.9 : 1 4. Bilateral involvement is in 58 cases and unilateral is in 77 5. 45 cases (27.3%) in duration of hearing loss is as short as 3 months and the next is overs; 28 cases (16.9%) 6 to 10 years; 21 cases (12. 7%). And in cases of total deaf, nearly all cases is over 10 years. 6. The suspected cause of the hearing loss is unknown (99 cases, 60%) and the next is following head trauma by traffic accidents in 31 cases (18.8 %) and is related to the middle ear diseased in 12. cases (7.3%). Other causes like senile, noise etc. are in few. 7. The most common findings in ear drums is normal in 177 ears (79.4%) and the next is retracted drums in 28 ears (12.6%). 8. The average hearing level is widely distributed from mild to profound hearing loss which was not related to the audigraphic pattern.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.584-594
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of visual and hearing impairment and to investigate the effect of visual and hearing impairment on depression and cognitive function in community-dwelling Korean elderly. Methods: The study population consisted of a representative community sample of 4,028 persons aged 65 and older from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging 2008. Depression and cognitive function were measured by CES-D 10-item scale and K-MMSE. Visual and hearing impairment were measured by 5-Likert scale. Data were analyzed using Rao-Scott ${\chi}^2$-test, simple and multiple logistic regression. Results: The prevalence of visual and hearing impairment were 37.3% and 14.0%, respectively. Of the participants, the prevalence of depression was 58.4% and cognitive impairment was 50.6%. There were significant differences in depression and cognitive function according to visual and hearing impairment. Far vision and hearing impairment were predictors for both depression and cognitive impairment even after covariates had been adjusted. Conclusion: These data suggest that visual and hearing impairment in older adults may increase their probability of experiencing depression and cognitive impairment. Thus sensory impairment should be considered a risk factor for mental health and the cognitive function of elderly.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.2609-2619
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to investigate relationship among the depression, physical condition, daily living activities, and sleep state among old people at elderly care facilities. The subjects include old people aged 65 or older residing at an elderly care facility. At elderly care facilities, the depression of old people was related with the state of vision, mastication ability, quality of sleep, and sleep state. The degree of relation was high in the group with a poor vision, the one with a bad condition of teeth, the one that considered their quality of sleep to be poor, and the one with somnipathy. Their depression had negative correlations with age and positive ones with mastication ability and assessment of quality of sleep. At elderly care facilities, the depression of old people was highly connected with the state of vision, mastication ability, sleep state, and hearing ability. In short, the depression of old people at elderly care facilities is highly connected to the health state perceived individually. The findings point to the importance of close interest in individual health state and management of old people in poor vision, mastication ability in healthcare and nursing intervention.