• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.137-144
• /
• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify and assess the needs of the cancer patients and their families and provide basic data to meet with their needs. Methods: This is a descriptive study using questionnaire method. Questionnaire were collected by mail from 76 discharged patients from a hospice ward from May until the end of October, 2004, and data were analyzed by SPSS 10.0. Results: Admitted patients had needs of pain control (85.5%), non-pain symptoms (63.2%) such as vomiting, dyspnea, ascites, etc, and emotional and spiritual problem solving (28.9%, 14.5%). Interests of patients were health care of himself/herself (65.8%), concern for their spouses left alone (32.9%), and future of their children (15.8%). In families' needs of care of 5 areas, "information on patient's status and treatment/nursing care" was shown most high score ($3.48{\pm}0.62$). In detailed questions, they request most 'to inform the prognosis of patients' and the next is 'to inform the reasons that nursing care was required'. The next highest score was to 'inform family roles' ($3.39{\pm}0.64$), and next was spiritual support ($3.11{\pm}0.79$), and emotional support ($3.08{\pm}0.72$). Expectations of family on the treatment were comfortable dying (73.4%) scored the highest. Patients' families were satisfied with volunteer service most in service area (97.4%). The next was pain control (89.5%) and nursing service (77.6%). Conclusion: Health care staff should identify the actual needs of families caring cancer patients and they should operate realistic programme which can give continuous and assistance by reflecting individual needs and characteristics. With these srategies, the quality of life of patients and families can be improved. And then the intervention programme should be developed to measure subjective nursing care needs of terminally ill cancer patients and their families.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.26-36
• /
• 2020

Background: The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between the regional characteristics and the age-adjusted cardio-cerebrovascular disease mortality rates (SCDMR) in 229 si·gun·gu administrative regions. Methods: SCDMR of man and woman was used as a dependent variable using the statistical data of death cause in 2017. As a representative index of regional characteristics, health behavior factors, socio-demographic and economic factors, physical environment factors, and health care factors were selected as independent variables. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression and geographically weighted regression (GWR) were performed to identify their relationship. Results: OLS analysis showed significant factors affecting the mortality rates of cardio-cerebrovascular disease as follows: high-risk drinking rates, the ratio of elderly living alone, financial independence, and walking practice rates. GWR analysis showed that the regression coefficients were varied by regions and the influence directions of the independent variables on the dependent variable were mixed. GWR showed higher adjusted R² and Akaike information criterion values than those of OLS. Conclusion: If there is a spatial heterogeneity problem as Korea, it is appropriate to use the GWR model to estimate the influence of regional characteristics. Therefore, results using the GWR model suggest that it needs to establish customized health policies and projects for each region considering the socio-economic characteristics of each region.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.291-298
• /
• 2023

Purpose : Although Korea's health insurance system and access to medical care are well established compared to other countries, the rate of non-fulfillment of dental treatment is high. Medical use rates can be affected by economic characteristics, individual heatlh condtions, health concerns, and health behaviors. This study was implemented to investigate the effect of the middle-aged elderly people's family living together on the dental examination rate and to use it as basic data for program development, research, and poicies to promote oral health. Methods : Raw data from the 7th national health and nutrition survey conducted by the Korea centers for disease control and prevention (2016~2018) were used and analyzed using SPSS 21.0 Version (IBM, United States). Results : As a result of the study family types accroding to general characteristics, the more women are (p<.001), the higther the age (p<.001), the lower the hosehold income level (p<.001), the lower the educational background (p<.001), the more people who live in Eup-Myeon (p<.001) It was fouend that the rate of living alone was high. The dental examination rate according to general characteristics was related to age (p<.001), income (p<.001), and educational background (p<.001), and the higher the examination rate was in the same (p<.001), and the higher the family living together (p<.001). Factors influencing whether or not dental treatment was not performed were in the following order: household income (p<.001), age (p=.001), and family type (p=.017). Conclusion : The above results confirmed the relationship between family membership and dental examination rates, and measures such as the development and operation of participatory programs to improve public oral health by resolving medical inequality and enhancing health equity, and it is believed that the development of professional manpower and the operation of education and programs for professionals are necessary.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.21-31
• /
• 2002

The aim of this study was to analyse and conduct the comprehensive geriatric assessment for the elderly in rural area. The subjects were 388 older people aged 65 years or older living in the community. Data for comprehensive assessment such as physical, mental, functional, social and environmental conditions were collected from January to February, 2001 through a person-to-person interview. Of the total 388 olders, 169(43.6%) were men and 219(56.4%) were women. Mean ages of men and women were $73.5{\pm}6.4$ and $74.0{\pm}6.2$ years respectively. Three common diseases of the elderly were arthralgia(51.6%), chronic back pain(33.2%) and hypertension(18.6%), and higher in women than in men. Impairment rate of vision, hearing and bowel or bladder control was 59.0%, 20.1%, and 28.4% respectively. But that of lover extremities 3.4%. In terms of cognitive function, short term memory loss was found in 33.7% of males and 44.7% of females. The percentage of fully independent in the six ADL items was 72.2% in men and 58.9% in women. In the social supportive system, 49.5% of the elderly were living with spouse, and 22.9% living alone, 26.3% having care giver. These results will provide basic data for the development of community-based health program, which gives appropriate health service for the elderly living in the community.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.21-31
• /
• 2018

The rapid increase of the elderly living alone is a critical issue in worldwide as it leads to a rapid increase of a social support costs (e.g., medical expenses) for the elderly. In early stages of dementia, the activities of daily living (ADL) including self-care tasks can be affected by abnormal patterns or behaviors and used as an evidence for the early diagnosis. However, extracting activities using non-intrusive approach is still quite challenging and the existing methods are not fully visualized to understand the behavior pattern or routine. To address these issues, this research suggests a model to extract the activities from coarse-grained data (spatio-temporal data log) and visualize the behavioral context information. Our approach shows the process of extracting and visualizing the subject's spaceactivity map presenting the context of each activity (time, room, duration, sequence, frequency). This research contributes to show a possibility of detecting subject's activities and behavioral patterns using coarse-grained data (limited to spatio-temporal information) with little infringement of personal privacy.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.40 no.1
• /
• pp.128-136
• /
• 2011

This study was carried out to investigate the factors of food service satisfaction of the elderly in Busan. The survey was conducted from September 1 to October 15, 2009 by questionnaires and data analyzed by SPSS program. Fifty point nine percent of the subjects lived alone and the source of living expenses of 70.5% of the subjects was subsidy from government. The most important reason for the elderly to participate in meal service was 'economic difficulty' and 'to meet friend'. The subjects had various chronic degenerative diseases, such as arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis and cardiac disease. Sixty-six point eight percent of the subjects needed diet therapy for their diseases, but 87.1% of them don't want to pay the extra fee. Thirty six point five percent of the subjects attained information about lunch program because it was 'close to home' but 20.7% was 'from public officials'. The reasons for the use of the meal service were 'economic difficulty' (40.0%), 'to meet friends' (22.6%), and 'bother to prepare meal' (16.50%). The services provided by welfare center were health care, physical exam and haircut. The score given by the subjects on the satisfaction of meal service was 3.84 on the 5-point maximum scale. Higher satisfaction on kindness of staff, satisfaction of social support and awareness of support resulted in higher satisfaction of food service. It would be effective to provide food service models that meet specific needs of the elderly according to social welfare service and social community activities.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.235-251
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate the single-person household's demand for a wearable healthcare system that provides the ischemic heart disease and cardiopulmonary alarm to be developed. In this study, in-depth interviews were conducted with six unmarried individuals in their thirties who were in the workplace and the results were interpreted by Giorgi's phenomenological analysis method. The study results indicated that although the wearable healthcare system was implemented with high-technology functions that serve the intended purpose, it is necessary to comprehensively consider factors such as aesthetics, comfort, and ease of washing. In this study, we found that the variables influencing the interviewees' intent to accept healthcare services are complex and cannot be attributed to one factor alone; this study has also shown a variety of interpersonal correlations. In addition, although health-care research focusing on the elderly has been conducted in the past, it is suggested that younger generations such as those in their thirties can also be studied as health care service adopters.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.99-113
• /
• 2002

For this study a sample of 205 people, 66 males and 139 females, over 65 years of age, residing in C-gu of S-si and utilizing senior centers, were selected, The objective of the study was to provide basic data for health promotion program development provided by health centers. A questionnaire was used to collect date on general characteristics, health status, social health status and utilization rate for health services. The instruments used in this study were the Lawton scale, to measure daily routine function, the MMSE-K developed by Folstein and modified to fit the Korea situation, for mental health status, and the CES-Dtool developed by Radloff, for emotional health status. the SPSS Window program was used to calculate percentages. Tests of significance were done using t-test and ANOVA. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify variables influencing the use of health services. The results are as follows : Of those utilizing senior citizen centers, 40.9% of males and 17.3% of the female thought they were healthy. The average score for IADL was 7.4. The daily routine of female respondents consisted of buying household articles and drugs, and other IADLs such as riding the bus or subway alone. These resulted in a higher score compared to males. For emotional health, 7.6% of the males reported depression compared to 21.6% of the females. For mental health, 48.5% of the males and 28.8% of the females were found to be in the group suspicious for dementia. On social health, 57.6% of the males and 62.6% of the females reported no intimate human relations. Of those older people who had close human relations, 52.5% of the males indicated a friend as the closest person and 53.8% of the females, their children. On use of health services, there was a significantly higher need for mobile medical care services treatment for those with lower education levels and status of window/widower. There was a significantly higher need for health exmination services for those with lower levels of exercise, greater satisfaction with sleep, higher levels of oral health care, and higher social contacts. In conclusion, there is a need to provide varied programs for the promotion of health, along with parallel resolution of social, psychological and economic issues. It is recommended that health services for elderly people provided by the health centers be implemented with full recognition of these characteristics and differences.

• Korea journal of population studies
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.58-81
• /
• 1987

The purpose of this study is to examine major factors that affect patterns of living arrangements of older Korean noncitizens in the United States using the 1990 8% Public Use Microdata Sample(PUMS). In order to do so, I analyzed the effects of four factors including acculturation(English proficiency and Age at migration), economic circumstances(Personal Income and Supplemental Security Income: SSI receipt), health status(Mobility and Personal care limitation), and the ethnic community. The results show that acculturation and economic circumstances play an important role in determining the patterns of living arrangements among older Korean aliens, whereas the health status and the ethnic community do not show consistent effects. Regardless of marital status, the impact of age at migration is positively associated with solitary living of older Korean noncitizens, though, the effect of English proficiency show the opposite direction in accordance with marital status. That is, among nonmarried elders, those who cannot speak English are more likely to live alone. The case is reverse for married elders. The impact of economic feasibility is also positively associated with independent living arrangements. Those who receive SSI are much more likely to live apart from family, and elders whose annual personal income between $5,001 and $10,000 have the greatest propensity of solitary living-a large proportion of their income source is SSI. Individuals who receive SSI are also qualified to collect Medicaid, food stamps, rent subsidies, and other welfare benefits. In a sense, the economic feasibility provided by welfare benefits is the key determinant of independent living of older Korean noncitizens. Therefore, the recent welfare reform which denies legal aliens welfare benefits such as SSI and food stamps will severly affect the present living arrangements of older Korean aliens, and give economic burden to their family member The findings also show that there are significant differences within the elderly Korean Americans in terms of demographics, income, fertility, health status, and patterns of living arrangements by U.S. citizenship status. In particular, after controlling for age at migration as a proxy for acculturation, there is a statistically significant variation in living arrangements between elderly Korean noncitizens and naturalized citizens. For both theoretical and methodological reasons, future research on minority aging needs to investigate the concept of U.S. citizenship status for its impact on patterns of living arrangements among the minority elderly.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.342-357
• /
• 2004

A descriptive correlation study was done to provide a basic data for comprehensive nursing care by analyzing the relationship between spiritual wellbeing, hope and perceived health status of the rural elderly. 130 respondents who lived at their homes and nursing homes for elders in D county. Kyungbuk province were selected and their age was over 60 years old. Paloutzian and Ellison(1982)'s spiritual wellbeing scale. Nowotny(l989)'s hope scale and Northern Illinois University's health self rating scale was used. From September 2nd to September 30th, 2002, ready made questionnaires were handed out by researcher and two well trained nurse research assistants. to those who can fill it out and for those who cannot fill out the questionnaires alone, the researcher and assistants read it and finished by interview. This study used Pearson's correlation coefficient for the hypothetic test and the average point and standard deviation of spiritual wellbeing, hope, and perceived health status were checked. To find out the difference between spiritual wellbeing, hope, and perceived health status by general characteristics ANOVA and Tukey test were used. The results are as follows : 1. The mean score for spiritual wellbeing of the rural elders was $49.94(\pm5.62)$ in a possible range of 20-80. The mean score of religious wellbeing was $25.20(\pm3.91)$ and that of existential wellbeing was $24.74(\pm2.83)$ in a possible range of 10-40. The average point of religious wellbeing was $2.52(\pm0.39)$ points and existential wellbeing was $2.47(\pm0.28)$ points to 4 point full marks. 2. The mean score for hope was $67.68(\pm10.92)$ in a possible range of 29-116. The average point of hope was $2.33(\pm0.38)$ points to 4 point full marks. 3. The mean score for perceived health status was $9.95(\pm2.66)$ in a possible range of 4-14. The average point of perceived health status was $2.15(\pm0.72)$ point to 4 point full marks. 4. In testing the hypothesis concerning the relationship between spiritual wellbeing and hope, there was a statistically positive correlation(r=0.621. p=0.000). 5. In testing the hypothesis concerning the relationship between hope and perceived health status, there was a statistically positive correlation(r=0.305, p=0.000). 6. There were significant differences in spiritual wellbeing according to age(F=5.60, p=0.000), religion(F=11.61. p=0.000), family status(F=2.86, p=0.040) and average monthly pocket money(F=4.32, p=0.015). 7. There were significant differences in hope according to age(F=16.49, p=0.000), religion (F=3.56, p=0.009), educational level(F=8.94, p=0.000), present occupation(t=-3.13, p=0.002), family status(F=5.90, p=0.001) and average monthly pocket money(F=3.41. p=0.036). 8. There were significant differences in perceived health status according to present occupation(t=-2.16, p=0.033) average monthly pocket money(F=4.11, p=0.019). From the above results it can be concluded that: There was a positive correlation between spiritual wellbeing and hope, hope and perceived health status. There was no positive correlation between spiritual wellbeing and perceived health status. For futher study, adequate spiritual wellbeing scale and hope scale for rural elders should be developed and, age and religion factors has to be reconsidered. When the nurse implicate the nursing intervention which can be promote the spiritual wellbeing and hope, rural elder's spiritual wellbeing and hope can be improved and at the same time, their perceived health status also can be improved.