• 한국노년학
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.779-791
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• 2010

This study was to examine the differential impacts of social experiences and conditions on health among men and women aged 65 years or older, using data of the "2004 Survey on living Status of the Korean Elderly". The outcome variables were any disability, self-rated health, multiple morbidity, and self-rated quality of life. Multiple Classification Analysis was used to test the differential exposure to social factors contributes to gender difference in health. Gender differences in vulnerability of each individual socioeconomic, psycho-social, and behavioral factors for health were assessed by comparing logit coefficients in men and women. I found that gender difference in exposure to social factors contribute to inequalities in health between older men and women, however, gender inequalities remained after controlling for differential exposure except in case of quality of life. In addition, gender differences in health were further explained by differential vulnerabilities to social factors between men and women. Findings of this study may affirm the importance of further and deeper investigation of gender differences in health in later life. Gender sensitive approach in health planning and polices for the elderly is also suggested.

• 한국노년학
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.1645-1663
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• 2009

The purpose of the study is to analyze the mediating effects of self-image on the relationship between experience of discrimination and self-esteem among the elderly in Korea. Furthermore, it is to explore whether these effects are moderated by social and economic activity participation. Data were collected from a cross-sectional survey of 543 community-dwelling Korean older adults (age≥65) drawn from community and senior centers in the mid-size city in Korea. The statistical analysis was performed by a structural equation modeling using LISREL statistical program. The results are fourfold. First, experiences of discrimination exerted the negative effects on physical, dispositional, and competent self-images of the elderly. Second, dispositional and competent self-image brought down by discriminative experiences lowered the levels of self-esteem. Third, social activity participation moderated the negative effects of discrimination experiences on physical and dispositional self-images. It also moderated the effects of dispositional self-image on self-esteem. Fourth, economic activity participation did not show moderating effects on the relationship between experience of discrimination and self-images. Meanwhile, it moderated the effect of competent self-image on self-esteem. These results demonstrate that to improve self-esteem of the elderly population, social welfare policies should make effort to reduce discrimination toward the elderly. Furthermore, social welfare organizations should also try to implement diverse community based programs geared for enhancing social and economic activities for elderly. Limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.

• 한국노년학
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.1189-1208
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors related to social participation of Korean young-old adults residing in urban area with a focus on the effects of various motivations. In addition, this study examined gender differences in the relationships between social participation and motivations of social participation. Self-oriented motivation, network-oriented motivation, and society-oriented motivation were considered as motivations of social participation. The study subjects were 836 men and 877 women aged 50-69. The data were collected through face-to-face interviews using structured questionnaires in 2009. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to examine the relationships between motivations and the level of social participation using the SAS program. Main results were as follows: 1) The network-oriented motivation and society-oriented motivations were significantly related to the level of social participation; 2) Although men and women significantly differed in the patterns of social participation, gender differences were not found in the relationships between the social participation and motivations. These findings imply that network-oriented motivation and society-oriented motivation are important for facilitating the social participation of Korean young elderly. Further implications were discussed.

• 한국노년학
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.1479-1500
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• 2009

This study examined BMI distributions among older adults in three different countries: the U.S., Japan, and Korea. The paper also explored differences in the factors predicting BMI in the three countries using three data sets: the U.S. Longitudinal Study of Aging (LSOA II, 8,589 persons), the Nihon University Japanese Longitudinal Study of Aging (NUJLSOA, 2,888 persons), and the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA, 2,397 persons). Descriptive analysis and multiple regression were performed. Japanese older adults were somewhat lighter than Koreans with fewer people at the upper end of the BMI distribution. Distributions of BMI among both Koreans and Japanese are shifted leftward relative to Americans. There is less dispersion in the distribution of BMI for Koreans and Japanese than among Americans. The association between socioeconomic variables and BMI is stronger in the U.S. and Japan than in Korea. Demographic variables are strong predictors of BMI in Korea. In Japan, all health behaviors have significant effects on BMI. It is concluded that the relationships between behavioral, demographical, and socioeconomic factors and BMI are not the same across countries. Results have policy implications for the involvement of health practitioners in helping older adults to control weight.

• 한국노년학
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.459-475
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• 2009

This study focused on abused old people who lived together with their family in community. The purposes of the study were aimed to typology the abused old people according to abuse level, investigate the characteristics by categorization, and suggest policies to improve the abused old people's quality of life. Data were collected from 1,200 old people aged above 65 years old who lived in Kyungki province, Incheon-si, Chungnam province. Among 1,200 people, 212 abused old people were analysed for the study. First, as a result of categorizing old people according to abuse level, forcefully abused and damaged group, psychologically abused and damaged group, and lukewarmly abused and damaged group were categorized. The forcefully abused and damaged group was seriously suffered from verbal and emotional abuse and noninterference, including 14.6% of the subjects. The psychologically abused and damaged group appeared high in verbal and emotional abuse, and level of noninterference, and the highest in level of depression, including half of the subjects. Lastly, the lukewarmly abused and damaged group was lower in verbal and emotional abuse, economic abuse and level of noninterference than other two groups, but higher in physical abuse and abandonment than the psychologically abused and damaged group. Policies to improve the quality of life for the abused old people based on the each group were made.

• 한국노년학
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.409-425
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• 2007

The purposes of this study were to compare the disability prevalence and its related factors between men and women. The data used for the analysis was the National Health and Nutrition Survey, 2005, and the instrument of measuring disability was the K-ADL which had been developed by Won(2002). Chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression were used to test the gender difference. In the bivariate analyses, women had more disabilities than men among the entire elderly and the young elderly. However, there was not gender difference of disability among the old elderly. After controlling for age and other factors related to disability, no gender differences in the prevalence of disability were found. However, in the same analyses for the individual activities of daily living, men had more disabilities than women for all the activities except bathing and incontinence control. In conclusion, women's higher prevalence of disability in the univariate and bivariate analyses were spurious, because it was disappeared when other related factors to disability were controled for and women's disability became lower than men for some activities of daily living.

• 한국노년학
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.607-621
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• 2011

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between physical activities, sleep disturbance, and health related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods A descriptive survey design used pretest dataset of COPD symptom management intervention study (N=245). Measures included the international physical activity questionnaire, the COPD and asthma sleep impact scale, and the St. George's respiratory questionnaire of HRQOL. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and simultaneous multiple regression by the SPSS WIN 18.0 program. Results The mean scores (SD) of HRQOL and sleep disturbance were 36.04 (19.43) and 14.33 (6.20), respectively. About 32% of participants were physically inactive. The multivariate approach showed the patients who have more sleep disturbance (β=.27), lower levels of FEV1 % predicted (β=-.23), lower physical activities (β=-.19), lower household income (β=-.16), and diagnosed longer than 5 years (β=.14) reported lower HRQOL (R²=.34). Conclusion The findings of this study suggest that improving the quality of sleep and physical activities can be efficient strategies for HRQOL in patients with COPD. Future research in enhancing HRQOL through improving sleep quality and physical activities is needed.

• 한국노년학
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.223-241
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• 2011

The purpose of this research is to analyze the effect of an autobiography writing program as a method of education for older adults. The authors participated in the processes of all 10 sessions of the autobiography writing program as instructors or program assistants at a senior welfare center in Seoul, 2007. Data used for analysis were learners' narrations in class, written autobiographies by learners, and researchers' memo-notes. We analyzed their narrative flows using Haenninen(2000)'s theory of narrative flow and reconstructed their categories of activities as life histories. 'The innen narration' constructed by learners was a spiritual process in which they have imbued their life and living conditions with meaning. The learners reminisced their lives as 'unreflective narration' in the beginning of education. However, as the class went on, they gradually reminisced them as "reflective narration" and finally developed them as 'meta-reflective narration' through the intentional reflection. Likewise, we could interpret the transition of learners into meta-reflecter as the completion of ego-integration. As a conclusion, we found the effects of the autobiography writing education for older adults in educational, social, and psychological aspects.

• 한국노년학
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.593-610
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• 2009

The Purpose of this study are to examine the middle-age and old worker's employment rates by age and gender at economic depression and recovery periods after the economic crisis, to identify the main 3causes of the change of the middle-age and old worker's employment rates between two periods, and to analyze whether the determinants affecting the middle-age and old worker's employment may be different by age and gender. For this study, The Annual Korean Labor Panel data(from 1st to 7th) are used. The results show that the employment rates are increased in the economic recovery period, and the difference between male and female employment rates decrease as ages go up. As we predicted, the determinants affecting the middle-age and old worker's employment are different by age and gender. For example, the existence of partner has positive effect on the male employment, but negative effect on female employment. The increases of the middle and old age worker's employment rates in the recovery period are mainly caused by the extension of the individualism(that is, the increases of the middle and upper class workers' employment), rather than the increases of the poor workers' employment rates due to the poverty(that is, the increases of the lower and poor class workers' employment). In the recovery period, comparing to the economic depression periods, the middle-age and old workers in the high class were likely to remain his(her) a good job while those in lower class are more difficult to get a job. This results show that the polarization of middle-age and old worker's employment has been appeared in the recovery periods(after 2001).

• 한국노년학
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.215-230
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• 2009

In this study, we compared Korean retirees' retirement wealth adequacy with their subjective recognition and examined determinants affecting the retirement wealth adequacy. The data were drawn from the 2007 Korean Retiree Survey carried out by the Korean Investors Education Foundation. The major results of this study were as follows. The analysis suggested that Korean retirees(age 50 and over) were not well prepared financially. When using their assets(except for their residence), only 23.2% had accumulated enough wealth to meet their expenses for the remainder of their life. 25.7% of retirees subjectively considered themselves to be adequately covered. The comparison results showed that 23.8% of retirees' subjective recognition was not in accord with the estimation results. One of the most troubling groups is the 12.9% of retirees who were in the inadequacy group even though they considered themselves to be in the adequacy group. Retirement wealth adequacy determinants were quite different between objective adequacy and subjective recognition. Household income and ownership of a residence have positive effects on the retirement wealth adequacy. Also, the importance of retirement planning to retirement wealth adequacy is statistically confirmed. Based on these findings, This research suggests private retirement planning and political implications for retirees and preretired households.