• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.66 no.4
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• pp.45-60
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• 2016

Elderly women have a high risk of falling down in their daily lives. The purpose of this study is to develop protective pants for elderly women, which will mitigate the impact of falls, and play a major role in reducing injuries. The two types of design were proposed for development of protective pants by selecting pad insertion point and inserting lining for keeping pad in place through the checklist to investigate from the interviews with the medical workers and the investigation of the user requirement. Design A has protective pads in the hip, hip joint, and knee, while design B has protective pads in the hip and hip joint area. For the impact absorbing material, CR (chloroprene rubber) foam was selected for its flexibility, lightness, and impact absorbing capacity, and its pad shapes were designed to produce much flexibility in consideration of the activity and human body fitness of the wearers. Three kinds of pad types, which are the cut type, the porous type, and the honeycomb type, were proposed, and were manufactured to fit into the protective parts according to their design types.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.249-258
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the different patterns of the lower limb between elderly and adult females to reduce the rate of falls. Ten old females(age: $73.1{\pm}2.69yrs$, height: $151.9{\pm}4.82cm$, mass: $57.36{\pm}5.36$) and ten adult females(age: $28\pm}4.76$ yrs, height: $160.6{\pm}6.83cm$, mass: $53.9{\pm}8.44$) were participated in this experiment. The gait motions were captured with Qualisys system and variables were calculated with Visual-3D. The following results were found. The elderly female group showed bigger inclination angle between COM and COP than the adult female group so that the dynamic stability was reduced in walking for the compensation with a bigger stride width. The elderly female group ensure for the necessary forward movement of COM in order to replace the decreased function of ankle and knee joint. If the distance between COM and COP is closer and the energy reduction of a specific joint is reduced, they could prevent the elderly female's falling rate by strengthening of muscles which were related the extension of ankle joint.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.613-625
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• 2013

Purpose: This study was conducted to determine the effects of a fall prevention program on falls, physical function, psychological function, and home environmental safety in frail elders living at home in rural communities. Methods: The design of this study was a nonequivalent control group pre posttest design. The study was conducted from July to November, 2012 with 30 participants in the experimental group and 30 in the control group. Participants were registered at the public health center of E County. The prevention program on falls consisted of laughter therapy, exercise, foot care and education. The program was provided once a week for 8 weeks and each session lasted 80 minutes. Results: The risk score for falls and depression in the experimental group decreased significantly compared with scores for the control group. Compliance with prevention behavior related to falls, knowledge score on falls, safety scores of home environment, physical balance, muscle strength of lower extremities, and self-efficacy for fall prevention significantly increased in the experimental group compared with the control group. Conclusion: These results suggest that the prevention program on falls is effective for the prevention of falls in frail elders living at home.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.5 no.10
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• pp.1751-1768
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• 2011

Falls are one of the most concerned accidents for elderly people and often result in serious physical and psychological consequences. Many researchers have studied fall detection techniques in various domain, however none released to a commercial product satisfying user requirements. We present a systematic modeling and evaluating procedure for best classification performance and then do experiments for comparing the performance of six procedures to get a statistical classifier based wrist-type fall detector to prevent dangerous consequences from falls. Even though the wrist may be the most difficult measurement location on the body to discern a fall event, the proposed feature deduction process and fall classification procedures shows positive results by using data sets of fall and general activity as two classes.

• PNF and Movement
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2010

Presbycusis or related-age hearing loss is approximately 30 percent for people aged over 65 years. The purpose of this study was to compare the relationship between the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly and the Berg Balance Scale for predicting and screening risk of falls in people over 65 years with diagnosed presbycusis. Thirty-five subjects all lived at the nursing home in Wonju. Disability caused presbycusis was measured using the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly, and static and dynamic balance was measured using Berg Balance Scale. Data were analyzed using Spearman correlation. Statistically significant differences were noted between two clinical meausres (r=.862, p<0.001). In conclusion, the results suggest that presbycusis may be able to predict dangerous falls in older persons.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2018

PURPOSE: This study investigated the relationship between the daily physical activity level and fall-proof-related fitness in older female adults. METHODS: This study promoted and sampled the subjects who participated in the study for 2 weeks, and developed a basic information questionnaire to select the subjects to be excluded from the research. The amount of energy expenditure through daily physical activity was examined, and the elderly physical fitness, and balance test were analyzed. The subjects were divided into group A (${\geq}1,500kcal/week$), group B (<$1,500-{\geq}1,000kcal/week$), and group C (<1,000 kcal/week) according to their daily physical activity level. RESULTS: A significant difference in the daily physical activity level (energy expenditure), Chair Stand Test (lower body strength), 8-Foot Up-and Go Test (dynamic balance), and CTSIB-M (modified Clinical Test of Sensory Interaction in Balance) was observed among groups A, B, and C (p<.5), but there was no significant difference in the Chair Sit-and-Reach Test (lower body flexibility) (p>.5). CONCLUSION: The increase in physical activity is an essential factor for preventing falls and it provides many health benefits for the elderly. On the other hand, considering that elderly people cannot access exercise programs easily in Korea, it can be predicted that increasing elderly people's physical activity in daily life rather than specific exercises may help prevent falls.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.945-953
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• 2014

This study aims to develop protective pants to relieve impact from falls and to present basic data for the development. The survey results are as follows; First, 45% of the respondents were in their 60s and 55% of them were in their over 70s and older. Also, 64% of them have fallen once for the past year and 36% of them have fallen twice or more. The older they were, the more there were those who have fallen twice or more. This indicated the older people has experienced more fall accidents again after a initial fall accident. Second, as per accident situations, the survey showed that fall accidents happened the most in the winter and in the afternoon (12-18 pm). Also, it happened on a street mostly and they were wearing sneakers or hiking boots when they got a hurt slipped in a front or side by missing their step in a walk. The injury areas are mostly knee and ankle. They had the bruises or a sprain in their knee and ankle mostly. The rate of bone fracture was 19.5%. Therefore, the protection area to falls in lower body is the knee. But hip and hip joint should be protected with knee as well because those are usually be broken when it is damaged. Third, approximately 80% of those who were hospitalized for treatment had surgery. Patients who had surgery were rather in their over 70s than in their 60s. The older they were, the more serious their fracture was. The period of hospital or outpatient treatment is more than three weeks in many cases. They responded their health got worse after falls. Aftereffects of accidents were physical discomfort, anxiety and medical costs. Falls to the old makes physical damage, psychological damage, which cause reduced physical activity and the increased cost of health care with economic losses. So it results on a negative impact on the life of the old. Fourth, elderly females were rarely aware of impact protective clothing and they have never purchased such clothing. For impact protective pants, the major consideration was suitable design for their body types. They liked casual style with front or side pockets and simple designs without any patterns or decorations. As per pants materials, they responded that they need functionality, activity and elasticity. Among the functional points, insulation of cloths are considered importantly, so the heat reservance of material in the impact protective pants should be considered carefully.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.251-263
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• 2011

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the factors associated with fear of falling among the elderly dwelling in rural communities. Methods: From February 1, 2010 to March 31, 2010, a questionnaire-based survey was sent to 2,628 persons 65 years or older dwelling in 1 Myeon and 1 Eup of Gyeongsangnam-do. Among these participants, 735 (27.9%) had fallen more than once in 2009. For data analysis, descriptive statistics and hierarchical multiple regression were performed using SPSS version 12.0. Results: Factors influencing the fear of falling in the elderly according to falls experienced were number of outpatient visits, number of falls, gender, admission, purchasing of health function foods, and activities of daily living. Overall, the study showed significant differences in the score of fear of falling according to gender, age, education, marital status, living arrangement, main means of mobilization, drinking, income, number of falls, admission, number of outpatient visits, experience with outpatient oriental medicine, purchasing of health function foods, medical assistance devices, season, fall location, fall cause, shoe type, injury type, limitation of activity, and activities of daily living. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that programs should be developed specifically for elderly people who have experienced more than one fall because of increased fear due to multiple falls.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.59-66
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• 2013

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of horse riding exercise for the prevention of falls in the frail woman elderly people. Method : 30 subjects in H-equestrian and N-equestrian were randomly divided two group, aero-step exercise group and horse-riding exercise group. Each group carried out 40 minutes exercise three times a week for 8 weeks. TUG were measured for dynamic balance ability, and sway path of COP movement during standing were measured for evaluation of static balance ability in balance performance monitor(BPM). Result : The results were as follows, the dynamic balance scales of TUG between aero-step exercise and horse-riding exercise groups in post-test, were significantly different in measures(p<.05). And there were significant in two group after exercise(p<.05). The static balance scales of sway path between aero-step exercise and horse-riding exercise groups in post-test, were significantly different in measures(p<.05). And there were significant in two group after exercise(p<.05). Conclusion : These finding revealed that horse-riding exercise was effective on dynamic and static balance abiility of elderly people so that these exercise can be new altematives for the prevention of falls in the frail woman elderly people.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.119-128
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• 2011

Purpose: This study was done to determine the risk factors for recurrent fallers (2+falls) compared to single fallers. Methods: Participants were 104 community-dwelling people 65 yr of age or older. The data were collected from June 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009 using the Residential Assessment Instrument-Home Care. Results: Over the past 90 days, 55.7% of the 104 participants fell once, and 44.2% experienced recurrent falls (2+falls). In comparison of recurrent fallers with single fallers, there were significant differences in scores on the following factors: gender ($X^2$=4.22, p=.040), age ($X^2$=5.74, p=.017), educational level ($X^2$=5.22, p=.022), living arrangements ($X^2$=35.02, p<.001), cardiovascular diseases ($X^2$=17.10, p<.001), hypertension ($X^2$=4.43, p=.035), diabetes mellitus ($X^2$=4.44, p=.035), glaucoma ($X^2$=13.95, p<.001), Minimal Data Set (MDS)-Pain (t=-2.56, p=.012), fear of falling ($X^2$=4.08, p=.034), reduced vision (t=-3.06, p=.003), MDS-activity of daily living (t=3.46, p=.001), MDS-Instrumental Activities of daily living (t=3.24, p=.002), cognition (MDS-Cognition Performance Scale) (t=3.40, p=.001), and 'difficulties entering and leaving the house' ($X^2$=4.53, p=.033). Conclusion: It is important to assess the risk factors for recurrent falls and develop differentiated strategies that will help prevent recurrent falls. Additionally, utilizing a standardized tool, such as RAI-HC, would help health professionals assess multi-variate fall risk factors to facilitate comparisons of different community care settings.