• 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.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.173-180
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• 2019

Objectives : Loneliness is associated with negative mental and physical health. However, little is known about the risk factors of loneliness in the Korean elderly living alone. The aim of this study was to examine sociodemographic and social network related risks for loneliness among the elderly living alone. Methods : This is a cross-sectional study that enrolled 1,091 subjects who are the community-residing elderly living alone. Sociodemographic status, medical condition, cognition, mood disorder and levels of loneliness were collected using a self-administered questionnaire and a specific semi-structured interview conducted by a trained nurse. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data regarding sociodemographic variable and loneliness. Univariate and Multivariate regression analyses were applied to examine factors associated with loneliness. Results : The mean score of loneliness was 3.8 (SD=1.7). No family contact (standardized β=0.115, p<0.001), no religious attendance (standardized β=0.057, p=0.028), no gathering with friends (standardized β=0.088, p=0.001) and high score of Short for of Geriatric Depression Scale (standardized β=0.502, p<0.001) were significantly associated with high loneliness in the elderly living alone. Conclusions : Family function, social network and depressive mood could be significant risk factors for high loneliness in the elderly living alone. Public health promotion efforts to reduce loneliness should focus on improving family function, social network and decreasing depression.

• 한국노년학
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.805-822
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• 2009

This study aims to investigate the mental health level of the elderly people living alone and examine the difference in mental health level by socio-demographic factors and analyze the factors impacting on mental health level. The study subjects were 131 elderly people living alone who lived in "G" city. Symptom Check List-90-Revision(SCL-90-R) was used to measure mental health level. The results of this study were as follows. First, the study subjects' mental health level(3.53, 5 rating scale) was very severe and this means the mental health level of elderly people living alone is more severe than the mental health level of general elderly people. The study subjects showed depression symptom most seriously and also had severe somatization symptom. Second, there was significant difference in mental health level by gender and education level among socio-demographic factors. Third, in the final regression model, statistically significant factors impacting on the mental health level of the elderly people living alone were life satisfaction, ADL, IADL, welfare service support, informal support, contact frequency with children, duration of living alone, subjective state of economy. And comprehensive(macro and micro) implications were recommended.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.95-106
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between social support and loneliness in elderly women living alone. Method: Between 1 October 2008 and 30 April 2009, a random sampling method was conducted to recruit 112 elderly women who were living alone. The subjects were at least 65 years of age. Data was collected using the social support questionnaire, and the translated Korean Version of the Revised University of California at Los Angeles Loneliness Scale (R-UCLA Loneliness Scale). Results: In our study, the sources of social support were the children, neighbours, brothers and sisters, in this order. We found that the loneliness of the subjects was related to age, the number of children, and financial difficulty. The level of loneliness negatively correlated with the social support provided by children, brothers and sisters, other relatives, and neighbours. Also, there was a negative correlation with the social support satisfaction. The social support satisfaction and the social support offered by neighbours and relatives were the significant predictors of loneliness. Conclusion: The sources of social support, such as neighbours and relatives, and the social support satisfaction should be considered when planning intervention by nurses or social workers to decrease the level of loneliness in elderly women living alone.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.1245-1248
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• 2020

Elderly people living alone need smart care for independent living. Recent advances in artificial intelligence have allowed for easier interaction by a computer-controlled virtual human. This technology can realize services such as medicine intake guide for the elderly living alone. In this paper, we suggest an intelligent virtual human and present our virtual human toolkit for controlling virtual humans for a senior citizen living alone. To make the virtual human motion, we suggest our authoring toolkit to map gestures, emotions, voices of virtual humans. The toolkit configured to create virtual human interactions allows the response of a suitable virtual human with facial expressions, gestures, and voice.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.65-78
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• 2002

This study was conducted to identify the social support to living alone elderly in some rural communities and the level of life satisfaction. For the purpose of this study, face-to-face interviews and questionnaire were performed with 315 old people(male 43 and female 272) aged over 65 living alone in rural communities covered by 14 community health posts within Gyeongsangbuk-do Province randomly selected. The followings are summaries of findings; The average score of support from their children was $4.29{\pm}2.73$ out of 8. Variables that showed a significant difference were religion, level of living, type of medical insurance, frequency of meeting with children, time taken from houses of children by usual means of transportation, and subjective health status. It was found that the score of support from children was high for the elderly who had a religion, a good level of living, benefit from medical insurance, a high frequency of meeting with children, or a good subjective health status, or who resided close to their children's houses. The level of the support from friends and relatives showed a significant difference depending on the subjective health status, of which the average score was $4.13{\pm}2.61$ out of 8. The average score of the level of life satisfaction was $6.83{\pm}4.24$(male $7.60{\pm}4.09$ and female $6.71{\pm}4.26$) out of 17. Male elderly showed the higher level of life satisfaction than female elderly. Variables that showed a statistically significant difference in the level of life satisfaction were religion, level of living, medical insurance, hobby, children, disease, subjective health status, and ADL. That is, the level of satisfaction with life was found to be higher for the elderly who had a religion, a good level of living, benefit from medical insurance, a hobby, children, no diseases, or a good ADL, or who thought that they are healthy. The regression analysis with support from children as a dependent variable showed that the level of support from children was higher for the elderly who had a good level of living, frequency of meeting with children, or a good subjective health status. The regression analysis with the level of support from friends or relatives was higher for old people who had a good level of living. The regression analysis with the level of life satisfaction as a dependent variable showed that the factors which related to the level of satisfaction were sex, religion, level of living, hobby, ADL, and subjective health status. That is, it was found that for male elderly who had a religion, a good level of living or a hobby, or who thought that they were healthy, the level of life satisfaction was higher.

• 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.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.67-76
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• 2015

The Objective of this study was to establish the role of ICT based Welfare services to support the needs of the elderly living alone. For this, 85 current services for the elderly from 6 central governments was arranged, and also, 114 possible welfare services based on ICT in future were surveyed from the research articles. These services were categorized by Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and rearranged into online, offline and combined services. It was observed that most of the services were focused on Safety needs(medical health) and Self-actualization(leisure culture), and services for Esteem were lack. It would be possible to improve the services for the environmental improvement, employment expansion, independent Activities of daily living with the ICT based elderly welfare services. And also, it was needed to develop the additional services for the psychological and emotional support. It was concluded that ICT based consumer oriented services could improve the quality of life of the elderly living alone with the well balanced strategies.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.11-17
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• 2018

This study was conducted to analyze the factor of suicide ideation in the elderly living alone. This study is a descriptive research study of 175 elderly living alone in K&C region. It is a frequency analysis, correlation analysis, simple rare analysis. AMOS statistics were performed. Data collection was from January 2017 to March 2017. The results of this study are as follows. social activity (r=-.106, p<.05), subjective health status (r=-.292, p<.01) Self-esteem (r=-.069, p<.05), mind control(r=-.201, p<.01), and depression(r=.023, p<.01), stress (r=.320, p<.05). Suicidal influence factor 43.5% explanatory power. In order to prevent the suicide of the elderly living alone, It will be necessary to seek active nursing intervention to help prevent suicide.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.69-74
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• 2015

Objective : Positive psychotherapy is based on the premise that positive thoughts and satisfaction with life are determinants for improving the symptoms of depressive disorder. This article highlights the effectiveness of group positive psychotherapy on the elderly living alone with depressive disorder in Korea. Methods : A total of 25 Korean elderly living alone with depressive disorder participated in group positive psychotherapy. The participants completed the Hamilton rating scale for depression (HAMD) and the Positive Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ) before and after the group positive psychotherapy. Results : The HAMD and PTQ scores of the participants after the group positive psychotherapy were higher than before the psychotherapy. A correlation between the age of patients and improvement of symptoms after group positive psychotherapy was found : the older the patients were, the better the improvements were. Conclusion : The study shows that group positive psychotherapy in the elderly living alone is effective in improving the symptoms of depressive disorder. The participant's age was found to be a factor that affects the improvement of depressive disorder symptoms.