• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.186-195
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• 2018

In Korea, there is a need for safe and convenient elderly housing so that older people can enjoy a good quality of life and perform various daily activities while they maintain their health and well-being. Thus, this study is to suggest community -based housing settings for the elderly. We analyzed living space characteristics of the Continuing Care Retirement Communty(CCRC) in the U.S. In particular, we focused on CCRCs in the Oregon area and examined two types of settings: 1) a tower setting and 2) a town setting. The CCRC living arrangements include independent living, assisted living, nursing care, and memory care. We visited six CCRCs in Oregon during January through May in 2015. The field observations and floor plan surveys were conducted for data collection. The data analysis revealed that there are two types of arrangements: the suburban type and the urban type. Element analysis of the living unit designs for each CCRC type demonstrated typical space configurations. It was found that home care services were provided from local communities. It is suggested that community-based housing for the elderly should include mixed housing types so that community facilities can be shared. Medical services in the community were offered through healthcare institutions, disease prevention centers, welfare centers, and sports facilities. In order to apply these community-based care systems to elderly Korean housing, it is important to develop a community based on independent homes that share services and welfare facilities.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.47-54
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• 2001

Objectives : To analyze factors associated with elderly falls in a community dwelling, a comparatively important, but somewhat neglected, health mailer. Methods : Data came from personal interview surveys using a questionnaire of 552 people aged 65 or older living in a community. Socioeconomic, and health related characteristics were investigated as independent variables and experiences of falling in the previous year as the dependent variable. Results : 118(21.4%) of the elderly subjects experienced a fall in the previous year. 24 subjects experienced more than two falls, accounting for 20.3% of the elderly fall victims studied. Factors affecting the falls were families living together, level of daily activity, heart disease, and aconuresis;, therefore an elderly person who lives alone, lives independently, has heart disease, or suffers urinary incontinence had a demonstrated increased chance of failing. Conclusion : Groups at risk for luting included elderly persons living alone, living independently, suffering heart disease, or experiencing urinary incontinence. When an elderly fall prevention program is developed and implemented, these results should be considered.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.112-122
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• 2016

The study aims to furnish the data for the study of invigorating communities of various ages including old people living alone. Furthermore, it seems that the laddering method and kj method can be useful for the study of various attitude survey. This study attempted to extract necessary factors for space for community behavior of elderly people living alone using laddering survey method and KJ rule on a sample of elderly people who live alone in three different rental housings. The keywords that were drawn from the perception survey through laddering were divided into small, middle and large classification using KJ rule. Mostly identical keywords were extracted in the three complexes, implying that there is no difference of perception among the three complexes in this survey. According to the large classification where KJ rule was applied, there were six necessary factors for space for community activity of elderly people living alone in rental housing including spatial consideration, communication, resting space, nature-friendliness, health promotion and Secure identity, which were the same for all of the three complexes.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.889-897
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• 2020

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate whether there was a connection between oral health and memory loss in elderly individuals with no abnormalities in their daily lives and to identify factors affecting memory loss. Methods: This study aimed to identify an association between the Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index and Subjective Memory Complaints for the elderly individuals living in the community. Results: The results of analyzing the oral health assessment according to the general characteristics of the study participants revealed that with increase in age, income (p=0.05) and oral health of the elderly living alone decreased compared to those living together in the family (p=0.05). Moreover, the lower the income (p=0.05), the higher was the memory loss for the elderly living alone than for the elderly living together with their family (p=0.05). Conclusions: The study identified a link between oral health of the elderly and subjective memory loss and observed that oral health, cohabitation, and income level were related to subjective memory loss. Therefore, oral health should be considered as a predictor of memory loss for the elderly.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.275-286
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• 2013

To identify the prevalence and its influencing factors on depression among elderly vulnerable people in one urban community. This study used data from 381 of elderly vulnerable people in the community. The prevalence of depression was found to be 51.97%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis shows that depression was more prevalent as people in female gender; people with lower self-esteem compared to those with higher self-esteem; in elderly who perceived lower social support compared to those who perceived higher social support; and in the older adults with limitation in instrumental activity of daily living. The finding of a significant association between gender difference; self-esteem; perceived social support, and limitation in instrumental activity of daily living and occurrence of depression expected to promote the screening strategy for elderly at risk of depression in Korean community.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.149-165
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• 2004

In Korea, as the elderly population is growing, the quality of life of the rural elderly is becoming a major concern. By the way, social welfare services is less available and accessible to the rural elderly. And we have very limited information about community -oriented welfare services for the elderly. The lack of social welfare services in rural area resulted from mainly geographic isolation and economic deprivation. So, the present research aimed at; 1) to explore what the social welfare service is benefited from governmental or local assembly. 2) to explore what kind of community services is provided for the rural village and elderly. 3) to appear the political propose for the rural elderly. In South Korea, The Rural Development Administration currently operate 'villages which is supported special programs for the improvement of QOL of rural elderly' in 110 villages. It is a model governmental welfare service for rural area. For the purpose, the survey data is gathered from community level data per village (107 villages), individual survey data(881people) who live in the village and qualitative data. Two kinds of quantitative data is combined to form a data. The statistical methods used for data analysis are descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA. The major findings of this study were as follows : It was founded that the majority family type of the rural elderly is elderly-only households(75%). In case of poor elderly, they have very limited social insurance benefit and they can not get medical services with satisfaction. The result show that the welfare facilities per village and welfare service for the elderly is extremely low while the needs of welfare service is greate high. A distinctive characteristics in rural villages is that they receive a lot of services from private sectors, like as Women Farmers Union, Adult Union. They operate voluntary welfare services related to food supporting, education for the elderly, free haircut services and so on. In conclusion, the community care services from private sector has specialty in rural area. We conclude it is a distinguishing characteristic of rural community.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.73-88
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• 2005

As the proportion of the elderly population in rural Korea has increased rapidly, the quality of life of the rural elderly has become a major public and policy concern. In this regards, most of the researches on rural elderly have focused mainly on the 'risk factors or problems' of rural areas, ignoring the 'positive or protective aspects' of rural community on the quality of life of elderly. This study attempts to explore the possible positive influence of rural community on the quality of life of elderly and to examine the linkage among ecological characteristics of the communities, social interaction and quality of life of rural elderly. To achieve this goal, a community case study was conducted in four Korean rural villages. The data were collected using participant observation method and in-depth interviews (person-to-person, group interviews). All the interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim for the analysis. The data was analyzed using the reflective qualitative analytic technique. The major findings of this study are as follows : All of the four villages have strong community ties and provide contexts which make it possible for older people to share their everyday life with neighbors and to actively participate as a community member. Although the four villages were geographically not far from each other, the pattern of social interaction and the nature of everyday-life of the elderly were nevertheless different depending on the ecological environment of each community, the relationship history among the community members, and the shared experience of historical events in recent Korean history. Elderly men have smaller networks and have less frequent contact with community members than elderly women. The political and practical implications of this study are discussed.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.243-248
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• 2006

Objectives: The Quality of Life-Alzheimer's Disease (QOL-AD) scale is a reliable and valid tool for assessing the quality of life (QOL) in the elderly with dementia. This study aimed to develop the Korean version of Quality of Life-Alzheimer's Disease (KQOL-AD) scale for the demented elderly living in the community. Methods: KQOL-AD was administered to two groups: 24 demented elderly and 72 cognitively impaired elderly with no dementia (CIND) who were living in the community Each elderly person and their caregiver rated the elderly QOL. The Korean version of mini-mental state examination (MMSE-K), the clinical dementia rating (CDR), the activities of daily living (ADL), and the neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI) were also assessed. The reliability and validity of the KQOL-AD were examined. Results: In the dementia group, the internal consistency (Cronbach's $\alpha$), the split half and the test-retest reliabilities of the KQOL-AD were excellent. Scores on the KQOL-AD were significantly correlated with the scores of the NPI, but they were not significantly correlated with scores of the MMSE-K, CDR and ADL. In addition, the CIND group showed similar results to the dementia group. Conclusions: KQOL-AD might be a reliable and valid instrument for assessing QOL in the elderly with dementia It could be used as an important outcome measure for research on the demented elderly.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.33-43
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• 2009

As a result of rapid aging speed in our society, many problems related to elderly people have happened in many parts of our society. Among them, supply for elderly housing is one of the biggest problems. To solve these problems, 'long-term care insurance' has been put in operation from July 2008. By the time of the insurance operation, Ministry of Health and Welfare is increasing facilities every year according to '10-year expending plan of Care service infra' from 2002. As a result, the supply rate of elderly facilities has been raised. But the differences of facility supply rate between regions are very high in some cases. Therefore older people who need care sometimes cannot get proper care services in some areas. In that case, the frail older people have to use other care facilities of other regions. This is not a proper situation from the point of "Aging in Place". In order to prevent that case, it is necessary to set up proper 'Daily Living Spheres' and establish elderly care plan for it. Considering the points above, this study proposes the size of 'Daily Living Spheres' for the elderly, the kind and amount of elderly care facilities in it for the construction of Community Based Elderly Care System.

• The Korean Journal of Rehabilitation Nursing
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.5-11
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• 2007

Purpose: This study was conducted to compare the level of cognitive and physical function by the level of social disengagement in institutions and community dwelling elderly. Method: The study subjects were 209 people whose age ranged from 65 to 94. The data were surveyed with social disengagement index, MMSE-K, and ADL, and analysed by SPSS 11.0 using frequency, t-test, ANCOVA and ANOVA. Results: 1) The level of social disengagement was 1.67 in institution and 3.25 in community elderly, and showed statistically significant difference (F=41.07, p<.001). 2) There were statistically significant difference in MMSE-K (F=15.51, p<.000), and activity of daily living (F=9.65, p=.002) between two residence after control the age, gender, religion, allowance and number of children. 3) There were statistically significant difference in MMSE-K (F=6.55, p=.002) by social disengagement in community dwelling elderly. Conclusions: Programs for successful aging to reduce social disengagement should be developed that stimulate social activities and then improve cognitive function for the elderly. For these, establishing social policies in nation and local government is needed. Especially, these policies should be conducted among the elderly with low-income living in institutions.