• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.175-182
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of telephone intervention on the reduction of depression after the intervention for the elderly living alone during the COVID-19 pandemic. A one-group pretest and posttest design was used to examine changes in depression level following telephone intervention a once a week for 10 weeks. The subjects of this study were older adults aged 65 registered with 3 social welfare institutions in Wonju, and a total of 114 elderly completed a questionnaire before and after the intervention. Telephone intervention was provided by 56 nursing student volunteers, and each student was in charge of 2-3 elderly people. The depression score decreased from 6.59±3.74 before the intervention to 5.01±3.34 after the intervention (t=4.959, p<.001). Study findings suggest that telephone intervention is effective as an emotional support for the elderly living alone during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further research is needed to expand the scope of various subjects and regions, including the elderly not living alone.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.195-209
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to estimate the population requiring nursing home services among elderly people in Korea. This study identifies the need of nursing home services determined by health care professionals and estimates the proportion of elderly people requiring nursing home service according to the admission criteria. Surveys were conducted on health care professionals including medical doctors, home care nurses, and nurse practitioners. They were asked to assess nursing home need based on four content areas: Physical function (Activities of Daily Living), chronic disease, Physical symptoms (incontinence), mobility, eating, and sensory function. Based on the professionally determined need criteria the proportion of elderly people requiring nursing home services was estimated using secondary data from the 1994 Survey on the Living Status of the Korean Elderly. The number of study subjects to estimate nursing home need who were 60 and older totaled 2,058. The most important factor contributing to the admission eligibility criteria was the elderly living alone. Other factors related were the elderly being unable or having difficulty carrying out activities, and having insufficient help from other our activities, and having insufficient help from other members of the household. Using only physical function, the proportion of elderly people requiring nursing home was $8{\sim}9%$. When only chronic disease was used, proportions varied widely; for the doctor's group, the proportion was over 30%. Using all areas, the proportions of elderly people requiring nursing home were between 13% and 38%. The estimate using chronic disease and physical function was similar to the on using all areas.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.111-118
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• 2018

This study is a qualitative analysis that conducted a focus group interview to analyze the experiences of daily life of the elderly living alone and their chronic diseases management, and to explore the meaning, nature, and difficulties associated with. The subjects of this study were elder who lives alone without cognitive impairment and over 65-year-old. There were total 31 people and divided into 5 groups and they had 60 minutes interview. By this study, there were four themes of 'difficulties of daily life', 'suffering from chronic diseases', 'fear of the future', 'acceptance of life'. In conclusion, the elderly living alone felt difficulty in daily life due to physical aging and chronic illnesses, and they felt that they were accepting life at the same time while feeling the fear of the future situation. Therefore, in order to improve the life satisfaction and life quality of elderly people living alone, it is necessary to provide institutional devices that enable daily life such as meals and laundry to be maintained and to develop of an intervention program in order to maintain physical health. In addition, an intervention program should be developed to reduce the fear of future uncertainty and positively accommodate the life.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.87-99
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between self-rated health and Activity of Daily Living (ADL) and self-care behavior of rural elderly in Korea, focused on the difference among three distinctive living arrangements; living alone, living only with his/her spouse, and living with their married children. For this purpose, data were gathered from a nationwide survey, a total of 586 elderly aged 65 or older and living in rural area, using the structured questionnaire. Also, self-care behavior were categorized into 4 groups; life-style practice, medical self-care, adaption to functional limitation, and emotional management. The major findings are as follows; 1) Rural elderly perceived their health little and more 'bad' but their ADL capacity were 'not difficult', especially among elderly living with spouse. 2) The level of 20 items in self-care behavior ($1{\sim}5$score) was ranged from 2.51 to 3.81 score. The behavior level of regular exercise, setting up additional phone, taking a nutrient, and testing BP or pulse regularly were low but that of taking a medicine according to prescription, close contact with other people, and regular eating were proportionally high. 3) The majority of self-care behavior were correlated with subjective health positively but medical self-care behavior were correlated with subjective health or ADL negatively. Based on these results, policy implications are discussed.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.201-210
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• 2010

Over the past few decades, the proportion of elderly people in Korea has been rapidly increasing. In particular, rural areas are experiencing aging of communities more rapidly compared to urban areas. However, public policy for the elderly does not respond to the needs of rural elderly. To distribute health care resources equitably, it is necessary to gather reliable information on the health status of the elderly. The purpose of this study is to explore factors affecting Korean elderly people's ADL functional status. The data sources are from 2004 Elderly Living Condition Survey. The Analysis sample consists of 3,278 cases. Analysis results show that there is a significant residential variability in education, monthly stipend, living arrangement, subjective health status, regular food in-take, and regular exercise. Logistic regression analysis results also show that 'cognitive ability'(exp(B)=6.603), 'subjective health status'(exp(B)=4.576), 'age'(exp(B)=2.610), and 'living arrangement'(exp(B)=.589) are factors affecting ADLs. Namely, when a respondent's cognitive ability is limited, subjective health status is poor, or if their age is over 75, the probability of having a limited ADL has been 6.6 times, 4.6 times, and 2.6 times higher than otherwise. Among these variables, cognitive ability was the best explanation. In contrast, respondents who live with a spouse or adult children have a lower probability of having limited ADL compared with those who live alone. Considering that the most critical criteria in determining eligibility for social welfare services is ADLs, the development of appropriate ADL assessment tools is in an urgent need. Without the accurate assessment on ADLs, particularly on rural as well as the urban elderly, it seems to be hard to achieve effectiveness in the health care policy for the elderly.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.329-337
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• 2018

This study was designed to investigate the effect of medical education on the health behavior of elderly people aged 65 years or older who have the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome. From 2014 community health survey data, 9042 people with hypertension and diabetes who had disease management education experience in elderly people over 65 years old were used as the final analysis data. Data were analyzed by Chi-square test and multi-variable logistic regression. The results of the study showed that the perceived rate of cardiovascular health factors was higher in the elderly living alone with disease management education (p <.001), and the probability of walking more than 3 days per week was 1.145(P = .002), not drinking at the present time was 1.212 times (p <.001), eating thinly was 1.184 times (p = .002). From the results of this study, it is required to develop the health promotion policy that reflects the importance of education by health care providers and the health information provided to the elderly living alone.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.179-186
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors affecting the satisfaction of elderly care service in the elderly living alone and to provide basic data for the improvement of the satisfaction of elderly care service. The subjects of this study were 301 elderly people aged 65 or older who were receiving care services for the elderly in J city, Chungbuk province. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the influencing factors. The results of this study showed that the factors affecting the satisfaction of elderly care service of the elderly living alone were the manager factor, service factor, institutional factor, and income level. This shows that the higher the life manager, service factor, and institution factor, and the elderly living alone with low income level, the higher the satisfaction of the elderly care service. Especially, the factors of life manager had the greatest effect on the satisfaction of elderly care service, followed by institutional factors and service factors. Based on these results, policy proposals are as follows: First, improvement of professionalism and treatment of life managers, second, professional and systematic service support and strengthening of social safety net, and third, improvement of appropriateness, accessibility and persistence for quality improvement of elderly care service.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.125-134
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to explore the direction of decision support for senior citizens living alone by identifying the level of self-determination and desire for decision support. The survey was conducted on 300 elderly people living alone in five districts of Seoul. The analysis results are as follows: First, it has been shown that elderly living alone have thought that it is most important to reflect their decisions when deciding where to live. Second, respondents highly recognized that the need for support decision making as the age group grew. Third, it was found that the factors affecting the perception of the need to support decision-making by senior citizens living alone were age, trust in family and recognition of importance in decision-making. The study suggested the need for a specific, institutionalized system to support decision making for elderly living alone.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.43-60
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to investigate what life safety services the elderly living alone in rural areas need and to propose the life safety services that they actually need. The research subjects were 1,000 people aged 65 years and over living in the rural areas of Korea. Among the total 1,000 respondents, 283 elderly people who did not live together with their married children were included in this study. Data were analyzed through frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, and multiple regression analysis. The results of this study were as follows. First, the needs of health care services and vehicle support services (when the elderly went to the hospital or walked out) were high. These were services related to health, which means that the health of the elderly is not good and that they are interested in health. Of course, it is important to treat the disease. However, it is more important to prevent disease and maintain health. An expansion of these services is urgently needed. Second, the need for life safety services was affected by the frequency of contact with neighbors, uncomfortable housing, exercise, the frequency of contact with children, gas accidents, and nutrition variables. Through this analysis, we propose to include the housing improvement service, nutrition improvement services, and expanding social relations services in the life safety services.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.123-139
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to search how to promote health and improve nutrition and health care of the elderly people in rural area. Behaviors for health promotion and habits against health risk were surveyed. Dietary management was analyzed for surveyed nutrient intake by 24 hr -recall method. 242 subjects were collected in 12 cities or counties in Gyeonggi Province and 20 elderly people (10 male and 10 female) were selected out of 1 village in each district. Questionnaire for health behavior and dietary management was carried out by trained interviewers. Statistical analyses were made by SAS (version 8.1) and Chi-square tests and General Linear Models were used. Characteristics of the elderly people were 61-74 year-olds (68.2%), elementary school educated (78.4%), with spouse (51.7%), monthly living cost of 500-1,000 thousand won(43.4%), and monthly pocket money of 50-100 or 100-200 thousand won(33.5%, 26.5%). 41.4% of the subjects checked up medical examination regularly. The alcohol drinking status was significantly different according to gender: high no-drink rate of female (52.5%) and low no-drink rate of male (25.6%). Kinds of disease were different according to gender: higher proportion of cardiovascular disease(46.3%) and diabetes mellitus(8.1 %) in male and joint lumbago neuralgia(44.4%) and osteoporosis(8.6%) in female. Gastrointestinal complaints were nausea (69.0%) and chronic indigestion (17.8%). Constipation (12.0%) and vomiting (4.3%) were more frequent in female. Dietary management was good (3 meals per day: 93.4%., dining with family: 72.4%, regular mealtime: 72.4%, and 3-4 times of snacks per week: 44.9%) except side dish taking of 3-4 kinds only. However, almost one-third of the female elderly ate alone (30.6%) which was well compared with one-fifth of the male (19.7%). And food and nutrients intake were not significantly different according to gender except that male elderly's intake of energy and protein was lower than that of female's. The surveyed subjects had no difficulties in Activities of Daily Living (ADL), but some female elderly had some difficulties with Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) like working at home, using transport, and going shopping. These results suggest that low quality of life linked with low economic status of the rural elderly and that congregate meal at village hall would be required for the female elderly eating alone. For the undernourished male elderly, it would be needed to provide snacks and to establish nutrition and health surveillance system.