• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.4285-4288
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• 2012

Background: Opisthorchis viverrini infection is a serious public-health problem in Southeast Asia. It is associated with a number of hepatobiliary diseases and the evidence strongly indicates that liver fluke infection is the etiology of cholangiocarcinoma. Objectives: This study aimed to determine Opisthorchis viverrini infection in elderly people in Surin province, Northeastern Thailand. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among 333 elderly in 17 districts of Surin province, during one year period from January to December 2011. O. viverrini infection was determined using Kato's Thick Smear technique and socio-demographic were collected using predesigned semi-structured questionnaires, respectively. Results: A total of 333 elderly including 116 males and 217 females were selected from different study sites. Overall intestinal parasitic infection was 16.2%, predominantly in O. viverrini (9.91%) and followed by Strongyloides stercolaris (4.80%) and hookworm (1.50%), respectively. The O. viverrini infection was found higher in males (13.8%) than females (7.83%), and frequently in elderly 60-70 year old with 14.2%. Chi-square testing indicated that education and occupation were significantly associated with O. viverrini infection (P value = 0.02). The distribution of O. viverrini infection was found in 11 districts which was covered 64.7% of the studies areas. The highest prevalence was found in Thatum with 39.1%, and followed by Sangkha (24.0%), Buachet (21.1%), Samrong Thap (19.1%), Si Narong (15.0%), and Ratanaburi (13.3%) districts. Conclusion: This findings stress that O viverrini is still a problem in Thailand. We confirmed, for the first time, the high endemicity of human O. viverrini infections in elderly in Surin province of Thailand, underlying the fact that mass treatment and health education are urgently required.

• 한국노년학
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.351-364
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to learn about the decision factors affecting utilization of elderly welfare center of the elderly living in Gimpo city. The reason of the study is that the elderly welfare center as a provider of general welfare services could not only thinking about the state policy but also need to consider about the inherent role and function of the elderly. Especially for these elders living in rural areas, although the number of elderly welfare centers of the whole country has greatly increased in last 10 years, the effect and function of the facility are almost the same and they are still lack of leisure activities. This issue become a serious problem nowadays. For the above reasons, this article conducts a social survey of 360 elderly people over the age of 65 who lives in the Gimpo city which is a rural-urban type city. The research method is to examine the relationship between the predisposing factors, enabling factors and need factors of Andersen's behavior model with binary logistic regression analysis and the decision tree analysis. The result of binary logistic regression shows the most of factors of Andersen's model is significant. The factors of age, gender, education level in predisposing factors; monthly income in enabling factors and the reserve for old life, the preparation of economic activity for old life in need factors are significant. Then the result of decision tree analysis shows the interaction between factors; when the education level in predisposing factors is higher, the possibility of using of elderly welfare center becomes bigger. Also as the level of healthy promoting preparation in the need factors gets lower, the possibility of using of elderly welfare center still becomes bigger. Although differences were found in the interpretation of the results of regression analysis and decision tree analysis, the results of this study can still provide support for the necessity of elderly welfare centers providing integrated welfare services.

• 한국노년학
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.865-885
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• 2008

This study addresses a number of issues related to suicide among older persons in Korea. The study investigates various aspects of elderly's suicide ideation, and how this quality of life and self-esteem impacts on their suicide ideation through depression. For the purpose of the study, the survey was conducted and 8,135 elderly 65 years old and over who reside in Gyeonggi-do participated. The result of the study indicated that quality of life, self-esteem and depression of the elderly showed statistically significant suicide ideation of the elderly. Participants were divided into two groups according to their physical health status. That is, to find out how quality of life and self-esteem of the elderly impact on the suicide ideation directly and indirectly through depression among elderly people with physical disease and no disease. The results showed that depression of the elderly people with physical disease was the most highly significant factors in explaining the elderly's suicidal ideation directly a comparison of elderly people with no physical disease. Therefore, depression is a major mental health problem associated with suicide. Finally, these findings of the study can improve the elderly people's quality of life and reduce suicide ideation.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.10-21
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• 2006

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identity the effects of a health promotion program for rural elderly people on self efficacy, health problems, farmers syndrome and quality of life. Method: The study was a nonequivalent control group pre-post experimental design. The data collection was performed from April 12th, 2003 to August 2nd, 2003. The subjects were selected at Mari Myun Geochang Gun in Korea. Fortyfour elders were included in the experimental group and 45 elders were included in the control group. The 16-week health promotion program was given to the experimental group. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, $X^2-test$, t-test, paired t-test with SPSS/Win 10.0 program. Result: The experimental group showed a lower scores of health problems and farmers syndrome than the control group, and higher scores of quality of life than the control group. There were no significant differences in self efficacy. Conclusion: From the above results, it can be concluded that the health promotion program for rural elderly is an effective intervention for improving the rural elderly's quality of life and reducing health problems and farmer's syndrome. Therefore, development of strategy that can spread the health promotion program for rural elderly to the elderly of other rural areas are needed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.244-254
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to understand the deeper meaning of the experience to explore the essence of latter-aged elderly suicide attempt. To this end, by applying the technology of Giorgi phenomenology to focus on the nature of the experience was described reveal the structure of the developing. By targeting eight people aged 75 years and over in Seoul experience with suicide attempts, open the data was collected through in-depth interviews, participants were analyzed on the basis of the aforesaid materials result, late of suicide in elderly seniors experience semantics was putting down that long for the comfort at the crossroads of life. Analysis of six components were derived 'regrets the harsh years', 'desperate and pathetic beholden', 'useless worthless life', 'body of unbearable pain and lethargy', 'no place to lean loneliness', 'the last select'. Discuss these findings the suicide problem of latter-aged elderly suicide attempt, based on experience and in-depth, Elderly mental health and social welfare presented the practical implications for suicide prevention.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.644-649
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• 2010

Purpose: As the mean life expectancy of people has been prolonged, and the elderly people who participate in the production activities has been increasing, it is expected that the demand on the replantation of amputated digits in elderly patients would increase. But, there are few studies about the replantation of amputated digits in elderly patients. Therefore, we report treatment outcomes of replantation of amputated digits in elderly patients. Methods: From 1998 to 2008, the replantation was performed in 51 completely amputated digits of 33 patients aged 60 years or older. We performed the replantation in the usual manner. Under the brachial plexus block, the surgical procedures carried out in the following sequence: internal fixation using Kirschner wire, tenorrhaphy, arteriorrhaphy, neurorrhaphy and venorrhaphy. If the arterial ends could not be approximated without tension, a vein graft was performed. Results: Of a total of 51 digits, 46 digits (90%) survived. 13 patients (40%) had underlying medical problem preoperatively. But, in all the patients, there were no postoperative medical complications. As the postoperative surgical complications, excluding five cases of the total necrosis of digit, there were three cases of venous congestion, two cases of arterial insufficiency, seven cases of infection and 16 cases of partial necrosis. Conclusion: Age alone does not affect the survival of replanted digits. Type of injury is the most important factor that affects the survival of replanted digits.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.314-324
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• 2000

Evaluation of nutritional status of the elderly imposes different problem from the other age groups. It is essential to use right instrument to assess food consumption. In Korea, the food frequency questionnaire has not been applied widely to elderly people. The purpose of this study is to assess the possibility of employing a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire(FFQ) for the Korean elderly to estimate nutrient and/or food intakes. In this study the FFQ for the elderly was developed and validated. The subjects were 144 free-living old women aged from 65 to 90. The FFQ was designed with 4 items for cereals and 86 items for other foods and with frequency of 12 intervals. Three portion sizes were given to select : 1/2 of standard amount, standard amount, and 11/2 of standard amount. ach subject was interviewed with newly developed FFQ form and same subjects were also involved to complete 3-day diet record. Nutrient intake was calculated using software program developed by our group. The nutrient intakes by the FFQ was validated by comparing the results with 3-day diet record. The FFQ estimated significantly higher mean intakes of energy, carbohydrate, protein, fats and vitamin C than did the diet reconrds(p<0.05). Pearson's correlation coefficients between two methods ranged from 0.21 for vitamin Q to 0.69 for alcohol(mean r=0.53). From 32% to 42% of the subjects were classified in the same quintile of nutrient intake by two methods, and 63% to 84% were classified in the same or adjacent quintile. On average, only 4% of the subjects were misclassified into extreme quitiles. The results indicate that the FFQ developed for the elderly in this study is useful for classifying individuals by rank and identifying groups at extremes of nutrient intakes.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.957-962
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• 2005

Today, the elderly is increasing gradually in the Republic of Korea society and this problem will be more serious in the near future. Therefore, engineering support for aged people is required. We are establishing a new field of healthcare engineering for elderly people and aiming to support for aged people and disabled people using adaptive control and instrument technology. In this paper, the goal is to implement the shared control of a robot mobility aid for the elderly. As using this type of assistive technology to be useful by its intended user community, it supports elderly people and handicapped people to live independently in their private homes. The interface transforms the force applied by the user into the robot's motion. Devices like buttons, joysticks, and levers already exist for relaying user input; however, they require hand displacement that would loosen or otherwise release the user's hold. Such interfaces make operation very difficult and potentially unsafe. Therefore, we propose a shared control system. It's safe more than joysticks and buttons. The shared control is a means of registering the user's intention through physical interaction. It's an important component in the development of robotic elderly assistant. The concept of shared control describes a system which is two or more independent control systems. We are using that the three component blocks consist of pressure sensor (flexible force sensor), circuit of measurement and transfer function. Experimental trials of this paper have been tested at the indoor environment. The robot is able to know the user intended direction through haptic device were logged along with the robot's force sensor.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.72-78
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• 2018

Objectives The high suicide rate has risen as a main concern in South Korea. Given the complexity of the mechanism resulting in complete suicide, studies targeting various populations are needed for broader understanding of its risk factors. This study aims to analyze the factors affecting the suicidal tendency in the population of the elderly living alone in Seoul depending on basic elderly-care services. Methods A total number of 415 people participated in the study. Home-visit interviews were administered by trained interviewers. Suicidal tendency was measured by the Korean version of mini international neuropsychiatric interview (K-MINI). Health-related quality of life was measured by a brief version of the World Health Organization Quality-of-life Scale (WHOQOL-BREF). Alcohol problem was assessed by the Korean version of the alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT-K). Among total subjects of 415 interviewees, the actual responses of 408 people were used for the final analysis. Results The result showed that the suicide risk was high in persons isolated from social support [odds ratio (OR) = 4.49], having depression (OR = 14.85), and having low quality of life (OR = 4.39). Conclusions We found that social support, depression and health-related quality of life are associated with suicidal tendency in the elderly living alone on basic services. Our evidence will contribute to suicide prevention policy for the elderly living alone on care services.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.520-530
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• 2016

This research aims to propose an ergonomic design process for hip protector based on previous studies, existing products, multidisciplinary experts opinion, and wearing test. The elderly are more likely to suffer a hip fracture when they fall due to their physical changes in skeletal form, muscle quantity, bone density, and joint movement. A hip protector is an effective product to prevent hip fractures in the elderly but it also has a problem in that it is uncomfortable. Therefore there is a high chance that it won't be able to prevent hip fractures properly. Since the comfort of a hip protector is one of the most critical elements in preventing a hip fracture, we need to keep improving the hip protector for mobility and usability. Based on the previous studies and limitations of current hip protector products, we need to come up with an optimal design for the Korean elderly. First, knowledge has to be built relating to the ergonomic design of the hip protector considering body shape and size analysis using 3D-scan data, and biomechanical analysis on hip fracture. Second, we need to develop a design process including hip protector pattern design, and wearing evaluation with virtual system. Third, we suggest to reevaluate and verify the design procedure from impact evaluation using testing simulator, virtual evaluation of impact, to wearing comfort and usability evaluation. This design process presented in this study would be expected to contribute to the development of ergonomic hip protector which is suitable for the Korean elderly.