• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.233-239
• /
• 2018

A rapid decrease of total fertility rate to 1.08 in 2005 prompted the Korean government to plan and implement a '5-year plan for ageing society and population policy' starting from 2006. The 1st and 2nd 5-year plans had not shown any discernible impact on the fertility and the 3rd 5-year plan was launched in 2016. However, the fertility rate is going down further. The author reviewed the contents and assessment reports of the fertility promotion plan to suggest ideas for complementing the shortcomings of it. Author defined the major determinants of marriage and child birth as philosophy, politics, sense of value, social norm, culture, healthcare, and education. The plan was examined in view of these determinants. Transformation of Korea from an agricultural society to an industrialized society in a short period of time had brought about changes in most of the determinants of marriage and child birth; in particular philosophy and sense of value. These aspects were not put into consideration in the plan. Author suggested to launch a social education program for the general public to establish a sound philosophy of life, reform the sense of value on family, child birth and education, and cultivate the skill to draw a consensus through discussions on the social issues. A special program to promote marriage of women at the optimum age for child birth was proposed. The government should implement well balanced policy for economic development and labor. Multidisciplinary approach was recommended for these tasks.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.19 no.10
• /
• pp.936-940
• /
• 2013

As the ageing population grows around the world, the demand for electric wheelchairs, an important mobility assistance device for the disabled and elderly, is gradually increasing. Therefore, a number of studies related to intelligent wheelchairs are actively underway to improve safety and comfort for wheelchair users. However, previous collision avoidance studies for intelligent wheelchairs have concentrated on collision avoidance methods with the shortest distance and by only changing either velocity or heading angle, rather than considering the forces exerted on the user. If a collision avoidance algorithm that does not consider these forces is applied to an intelligent wheelchair, there is a possibility of an accident due to falling as wheelchair users are generally disabled and elderly people. In this paper, we propose a collision avoidance algorithm which minimizes the forces exerted on a wheelchair user by minimizing the variation of the wheelchair's velocity and heading angle when the sizes, positions, velocities, and heading angles of a wheelchair and a moving obstacle are known.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.57-68
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this study is to investigate the current characteristics of healthcare and welfare policies in Japan focused on the related policies in 2000's. In Japan, with the perspectives of entering the super-aged society by 2005 and the movement of all of the baby boom generation into the elderly generation by 2015, more rapid progress to the aging society is expected. From this situation, Japanese government has developed diverse elderly-oriented strategies such as "structural reform of social security", "nursing care system" and "gold plan 21" in 2000's. However, most of the related researches targeted the period to early 2000's, excluding the papers about the individual policies. Recently in our country, many related policies have been developed such as the enforcement of "long term care insurance system for the elderly" by 5 year period reevaluations and the preparation for 2nd step of "Plan for Ageing Society and Population"(2011~2015). At this moment, the investigation on the related policies of Japan could give appropriate references to us, a late starter of aging society.

• Journal of Fashion Business
• /
• v.19 no.5
• /
• pp.93-109
• /
• 2015

By the influence of ageing population, the well-being trend, and the increase of interest in health, people seems to be enjoying sports and outdoor life more. Followed by the change of consumers' life style, the interest in smart clothing grafting scientific technology has increased, and research on this subject is necessary. This study is to develop improved design of band type heating vests by grasping the weak point of currently sold heating vest designed by the manufacturer. Through this process, satisfaction of the consumer and the manufacturer can be increased. The results of this study are as follows: 1) Conducted a demand survey with the manufacturer and wearing evaluation test with the consumer on band type heating vests. 2) Suggested design drafts on band type heating vests for both genders reflecting demand survey results. 3) Conducted consumers' preference survey for design drafts. 4) Made the sample product, and then conducted an evaluation of wearing the actual product. Overall, the wearing test results showed high satisfaction for both genders.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
• /
• v.49 no.10
• /
• pp.584-598
• /
• 2011

The age structure has been experiencing substantial change due to the decreased birth rate as well as the increased life expectancy. Gorge Magnus, an English economist, casts warnings of population ageing which has the potential of huge socioeconomic impact human society has never experienced before. The prediction that proportion of elderly people in need of oral health care will increase substantially is a new challenge to dentists in the future. The old paradigm that the aged person is just the person who was born earlier and needs the same conventional oral health care should be shifted to the new one. Elderly people tend to express their political interest related with health care system by actively participating in the national elections. The need to sustain economic status for the extended life span makes them seek eagerly esthetic health care to maintain sound social function. Most of them are under multiple chronic diseases and take related medicines. In addition, many studies report about mental change as well as physical change among the aged people. Since the prevalence of dental diseases among the aged is higher than other chronic devastating diseases, the aged seeking oral health care will increase. The aged who has different physical and psychological status as well as chronic disease and related medicine will show unexpected response to the conventional oral health care. In addition, the impact of tooth loss is substantial physically, mentally and emotionally. Dentist should prepare different approaches for the elderly dental patient.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.20 no.3 s.71
• /
• pp.197-201
• /
• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate the work ability of employees using the work ability index(WAI) and to confirm factors affecting the work ability of employees in the Korean machinery industry. In this study, correlations between the WAI score and variables affecting the work ability of employees(age, the class of the employee's position the character of the work and the type of the work) were analysed by the correlation analysis. The study population was consisted of employees from Korean machinery industry(n=446) and the WAI questionnaire was more or less modified considering actual circumstances in Korean. The WAI score of entire employees was slightly high (WAI score=42, Level=Good) and the WAI score of employees under 29 years of age was slightly higher than that of employees over 30 years of no. As a result of one-way ANOVA and correlation analysis, the character of the work and the type of the work were variables affecting the WAI score and the WAI score of physical/mental workers was higher than that of physical workers.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Planning & Design
• /
• v.34 no.11
• /
• pp.67-74
• /
• 2018

With the rapid increase in the elderly population, numerous problems arise related to the decreased cognitive function such as the declines of reaction time and concentration which are both resulting from ageing. Recently, ICT-based smart home and other residential services are being developed as a means of complementing human cognitive functions, but the elderly, who are in most cases digital-illiterate, find it hard to utilize these tools actively and if so it usually takes longer time and endeavor for the elderly to be familiarized with ICT devices. In this context, this study suggests a configuration of the holographic system in houses that complement the cognitive function of the elderly with the consideration of the interaction with the vision which is a critical function in the cognitive process. The method of this study consists of a literature review on topics including the characteristics of the cognitive function among the elderly, holographic technology and residential services; a configuration of residential services for different space types, depending on the aspects of the cognitive function among the elderly; and finally a suggestion of a holographic system configuration and application depending on various scenarios.

• 한국노년학
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.971-986
• /
• 2009

This research investigated how the participation of various social activities affects cognitive function in middle-aged and elderly population. To examine the relation between the participation of various social activities and cognitive function, we used data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Social activities were classified into four types as religious ritual, leisure, public association and ascriptive association activities, and MMSE-K score was used to measure cognitive function. Results from multiple regression analyses after adjusting for socio-economic status and health status show that the participation in religious and leisure activities have positive effects on cognitive function in middle-aged and elderly population. Participation in leisure activities in middle-aged male group helps preserve cognitive function, and leisure activity and ritual activity are significantly related to cognitive function in middle-aged female group. Meanwhile the participation in religious and leisure activities have positive effects on cognitive function in elderly male and female group. Based on these findings, we suggest that various programs to support the participation of elderly population in social activities should be developed for healthy life for the elderly.

• 한국노년학
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.143-168
• /
• 2018

While there were posed arguments that social treatment to older persons should be based on the perspective of human rights turning into the 21st century, policy efforts to protect and promote the rights of older persons in international community have slowly proceeded. In this situation existing studies on the rights of older persons in the international perspective have been fragmented in their contents, lacking systematic overview of policy efforts to strengthen the rights of older persons in international community. This study aims to be the one that could be such a systematic study to overview international policy efforts to strengthen the rights of older persons through analyzing the background of posing the problem of the rights of older persons, problems in existing international norms for human rights applicable to older persons, and measures to strengthen the rights of older persons and controversial issues. Existing international norms on human rights that are Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international conventions on the rights in terms of area of rights and target population, and policy recommendations, are narrow in the scope of rights to be protected, and also lack legal force in their implementation. The international community has generally reached a consensus on strengthening the rights of older persons. However, there have been two different positions: strengthening existing norms on human rights versus creating a new convention on the rights of older persons. And also there have appeared many controversial points in both positions. Conclusively this study, arguing the creation of a new convention, suggests implications for Korean society and research studies.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.493-504
• /
• 2020

Background: There have been many studies on the associations between body mass index (BMI) and cognitive function. However, no study has ever compared the associations across the methods of categorizing BMI. In this study, we aimed to fill the gap in the previous studies and examine whether the obesity paradox is valid in the risk of cognitive function. Methods: Of the 10,254 people aged 45 and older from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing from 2006 to 2016, 8,970 people were finalized as the study population. The dependent variable was whether a person has a normal cognitive function or not, and the independent variables of interest were BMI categorized by the World Health Organization Western Pacific Regional Office (WHO-WPRO) method, the WHO method, and a 10-group method. Covariates included sociodemographic factors, health behavior factors, and health status factors. A generalized linear mixed model analysis with a logit link was used. Results: In the adjusted model with all covariates, first, in the case of BMI categories of the WHO-WPRO method, underweight (odds ratio [OR], 1.16; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.15-1.17), overweight (OR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.35-1.36), and obese (OR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.33-1.34) groups were more likely to have a normal cognitive function than a normal-weight group. Next, in the case of BMI categories of the WHO method, compared to a normal-weight group, underweight (OR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.14-1.16) and overweight (OR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.06-1.07) groups were more likely to have a normal cognitive function; however, obese (OR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.61-0.63) group was less likely to have it. Lastly, in the case of the 10-group method, as BMI increased, the likelihood to have a normal cognitive function changed like a wave, reaching a global top at group-7 (26.5 kg/㎡ ≤ BMI <28.0 kg/㎡). Conclusion: The associations between BMI and cognitive function differed according to how BMI was categorized among people aged 45 and older in Korea, which suggests that cognitive function may be positively associated with BMI in some categories of BMI but negatively in its other categories. Health policies to reduce cognitive impairment need to consider this association between BMI and cognitive function.