• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.264-273
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• 2012

This study analyzes the food frequency for the elderly regarding different family types and finds the factors for nutritional risk, offers a basic reference for providing nutritional support for them. The study referred to the dietary behavioral survey data of 3,680 elderly people (1652 male and 2028 female) from 21 regions in the northern Kyeonggi province. The data was collected through the method of one-to-one interviews and was a part of the Community Health Survey for 2008 by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). We classified family types as a household for elderly people living alone, a household of elderly people with a spouse, a household of the elderly with unmarried children and a household of the elderly with married children, and as for intakes of foods, the frequencies of taking fruits, vegetables, kimchi, rice with mixed cereals, meat, fish, bean tofu soymilk, milk and dairy products, as well as sweet beverages are calculated on a daily basis and skipped meals are calculated on a weekly basis. Elderly women showed lower income, lower education level, higher unemployment rates, and a higher rate of government healthcare subsidies than elderly men. Elderly women tend to live alone and with their children while elderly men tend to live with their spouse. In both males and females, the intake of fruits and vegetables were the least in the elderly living alone, while the elderly with married children ate the most. In both males and females, the household of the elderly living alone ate significantly less amounts of Kimchi than other family types. Elderly people living alone tended to have significantly less meat and fish, especially women. In the case of rice with mixed cereals, the elderly men living alone and the elderly men with unmarried children ate significantly less amounts than the elderly men living with a spouse. The elderly men living alone took significantly less milk and dairy products than the elderly men with unmarried children while the elderly women living with a spouse took significantly less milk and dairy products than the elderly women with married children. With regards to the frequency of meal-skipping, the elderly living alone had the highest frequency for skipping meals. From this result, having various foods is difficult for the elderly living alone. Furthermore, the elderly living with unmarried children demonstrated a low quality of dietary life compared to those of married children. Hence, it can be concluded that social support is important in order for the elderly to have a balanced diet.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.207-219
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of suicide attempts and non-attempts of the elderly living alone and the subjects in this study were 690 elderly persons living alone in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. For data analysis, this study used descriptive analysis, mean comparison correlation analysis, and binominal logistic regression analysis using PASW 20.0. To explain the suicide attempts of elderly persons who live alone, variables such as sex, age education level, monthly household income, religion, subjective economic status, subjective health status, ADL/IADL, depression, hopelessness, social support, and stress were used. The findings of the study were as follows: First, 9.2 percent(64) of the elderly living alone had attempted suicide and 90.8 percent(626) had never attempted suicide. Second, monthly household income, hopelessness, and social support were identified as the factors that affected their suicide attempts. In other words, the elderly living alone who had lower monthly household income, less social support, and greater feelings of hoprlessness had made more suicide attempts. As it is a cross-sectional research using data from non-probability sampling, this has a limitation in generality sampling, this has a limitation in generalizing the study results. To overcome this limitation, longitudinal research using data from probability sampling is necessary.

• Nutritional Sciences
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.146-154
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• 2002

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of household type on the health- and food-related behavior of the elderly. The survey was conducted on 304 free-living elderly persons in Chun-Chon city in 1999. The subjects were divided into three groups by their household types : living alone (n=35), living with their spouses (n=59), and living with their extended family (n=191). The results were obtained by personal interviews using questionnaires. Compared to the group living with their spouses and/or extended families, the elderly living alone were : less satisfied with the amount of monthly pocket money available; less involved in social activities; taking less vitamin supplements; doing less physical exercise; more frequently skipping meals and dining out; less frequently consuming meats, vegetables, fruits and seaweed; and having the highest rate of depression. The elderly living with their spouses tended to have the best physical functions and the greatest ability to carry out basic daily activities. The elderly living with their extended families had a higher incidence of diseases compared to the other groups. The preferred snacks were cookies for the elderly living alone, and fruits for the other two groups. In summary, it has been shown that household type should be taken into consideration for formulating adequate future strategies for effective health and nutrition programs.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.46 no.10
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• pp.49-57
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between household types and suicide ideation among elderly people in Korea. We collected information on 220 elderly individuals(aging over 60), 171 of whom were living alone and 49 of whom were living with their families. The results showed that; 1) number of children, health status, level of stress, and depressive symptoms were all related to the suicide ideation among both groups, and 2) individuals living alone had lower sense of control, were more stressed, and more likely to suffer from depression. Based on these results, various implications were discussed and practical suggestions provided.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.267-274
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• 2021

This paper examines the impact of the Basic Pension scheme in terms of poverty reduction and income distribution among elderly households by focusing on the differences in the household type. It compares the data before (2013) and after (2016, 2019) the introduction of Basic Pension by using Household Income and Expenditure Survey data. Empirical analyses indicate that, first, the overall income and the public income transfer of the elderly households increased during the period compared. Second, the poverty rate was considerably higher for the elderly living alone than for other household types. The government policy led to poverty-reduction for all types of elderly households, wherein the effect was most profound in the case of elderly living with spouse. Third, income distribution improved for all types of elderly households, though maximum margin was observed in the case of the elderly living alone. Fourth, according to the multivariate logit regression, the Basic Pension had a positive impact on reducing the risk of poverty (defined as below 40% of median income) among the elderly households.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.509-510
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• 2022

According to Elderly Long-term Care Insurance, MCI people can be provided cognitive program at dementia center and daycare center. However, Elderly Alone Household cannot be the proper beneficiaries in the insurance. Despite of increasing ederly alone household, consideration of daily life ability as well as easy-use cognitive program are not enough in the community. Therefore, this paper explores personal need and usability of ICT and VR cognitive program for elderly people in the community. Research results shows that elderly people are keenly interested in new technology. Especially human service and emotional bonding is very important contacting new device or technology.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.31-38
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the characteristics and changes of elderly households in rural area. The elderly were classified as elderly living alone, elderly couple living together, and elderly living with their children. Data from the survey of Ministry of Health and Welfare conducted in 1998, 2008, 2017 were used for the analysis. The subjects of the study included a sample of 9,401 respondents who represent aged 65 or more in Korea. The result of analysis was as follows; First, over the past 20 years, there has been no significant difference in the composition of the sexes of elderly in rural area, and aging is becoming more serious. Second, elderly living with children continue to decrease, and elderly couple are increasing. The number of elderly living alone is on the increase, but it tends to decrease in 2017. Third, the proportion of houses in elderly households is still very high, but it is gradually decreasing and the proportion of apartments is increasing. Fourth, the frequency of communication with children tended to increase slightly in all household types, while the frequency of encounter decreased slightly in 2008 and then increased in 2017. Fifth, the health status and economic status of the elderly have been gradually improved over the past 20 years. Finally, the emotional support in all elderly households is maintained constantly, but the instrumental support is gradually weakened.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.210-218
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the nutritional status of elderly individuals according to their household types and to investigate the predictors of their nutritional status. Methods: This study, which was a descriptive research study, involved physical measurements, surveys, and biochemical tests in 87 elderly individuals living in the community. Using SPSS/Win 24.0, logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the general characteristics, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), mini nutritional assessment (MNA) score, and biochemical indicators in elderly individuals according to the household type. Results: Elderly individuals living with family members had higher MNA scores than those of elderly individuals living alone, while showing lower levels of systolic blood pressure and fasting blood sugar. The results of the logistic regression analysis showed that the risk factors were MNA scores (odds ratio (OR)=1.81, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.36-2.42), systolic blood pressure (OR=0.96, 95% CI=0.92-1.00), and fasting blood glucose (OR=0.94, 95% CI=0.90-0.99). Conclusion: It was confirmed that elderly individuals living alone need differentiated nutrition intervention, since the results showed that they had lower nutritional levels and improper nutritional management than that in elderly individuals living with family members.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.97-106
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the factors influencing the happiness according to gender of the elderly living alone. Methods: This cross-sectional study used the raw data from the 2015 Community Health Survey. The subjects of this study were 14,705 elderly people aged 65 years or older, of which 2,198 were male elderly and 12,507 were female elderly. Results: The factors influencing the happiness of both male and female elderly were household income, depression, subjective stress level, subjective health level, quality of life, and lack of required medical service experience (p<.05). In addition, the male elderly were affected by the age, and the female elderly were affected by education, sleep time, walking and breakfast practice, and health screening (p<.05). Conclusions: It is necessary to develop and apply programs that can reduce the stress to increase the happiness of the elderly living alone, and efforts should be made not to cause a blind spot in terms of the health and welfare of the elderly living alone.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.610-621
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• 2017

Medical cost for elderly is increasing with ageing society and putting more and more burden on both individuals and government. To find a solution to reduce medical cost among elderly and to propose implication/suggestion to central government and a local government, different degree of medical cost burden by type of household and factors that affect increased medical cost are investigated based on elderly in Suwon city in this article. According to the research result, 59.3% of respondents felt medical cost burdensome. Also, according to the multiple regression performed to understand factors that increases medical cost by type of household, subjectively felt health status was found to be a statistically significant factor commonly in three groups which are living household with adult child, living household with spouse only, living household alone. And the degree of medical cost was higher in living household with spouse only, more higher in living household alone. And socioeconomic status and health status, health status, and health status and private insurance, medical security system were found to be significantly related to medical cost burden to household type of the elderly.