• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.11-17
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• 2017

To the elderly, sudden falls are one of the most frightening accidents. If an accident occurs, a prompt action has to be taken to deal with the situation. Recently, there have been a number of attempts to detect sudden falls using acceleration sensors embedded in the mobile devices, such as smart phones and wrist-bands. However, using the sensor readings only, the detection rate of the falls is around 65%. Ordinary daily activities such as running or jumping could not be well distinguished from the falls. In this paper, we describe our attempts on improving the fall-detection rate. We implemented a wrist-band fall detection module, using a three-axis acceleration sensor. With the pattern matching on the fall signal-strength frequency spectrum, in addition to the conventional signal strength measurement, we could improve the detection rate by 9% point. Furthermore, by applying two wrist-bands in the experiment, we could further improve the detection rate to 82%.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.2413-2419
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• 2015

Core spinal muscles are related to trunk stability and assume the main role of stabilizing the spine during daily activities; strengthening of core muscles around the spine can therefore reduce the chance of back pain. The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of core muscle strengthening in the spine during spine stabilization exercise using a whole body tilt device. To achieve this, a validated musculoskeletal (MS) model of the whole body was used to replicate the input motion from the whole body tilting exercise. An inverse dynamics analysis was executed to estimate spine loads and muscle forces depending on the tilting angles of the exercise device. The activation of long and superficial back muscles such as the erector spinae (iliocostalis and longissimus) were mainly affected by the forward direction (-40°) of the tilt, while the front muscles (psoas major, quadratus lumborum, and external and internal obliques) were mainly affected by the backward tilting direction (40°). Deep muscles such as the multifidi and short muscles were activated in most directions of the rotation and tilt. The backward directions of the tilt using this device could be carefully applied for the elderly and for rehabilitation patients who are expected to have less muscle strength. In this study, it was shown that the spine stabilization exercise device can provide considerable muscle exercise effect.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.46-54
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to determine whether movement strategies affect functional forward reach distance in a standing position. Forty-seven healthy subjects were selected for this study: 23 men and 24 women, with an average age of 22.3. Functional forward reach distances were measured as hip strategy and squat strategy (included knee and ankle movement strategy) in a standing position, respectively. The mean values of functional forward reach distance in hip strategy, squat strategy were 33.57 cm, 29.48 cm, respectively. There was significantly difference in functional forward reach distance between hip strategy and squat strategy(p<.001). There was no difference of functional forward reach distance between male and female in hip strategy, but there was significant difference in other strategy(p<.05). These results suggest that movement strategies should be considered during functional forward reach test in standing. Further study is required to determine whether movement strategies affect functional reach distance in elderly and disabled groups.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.13-26
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to understand the adult day care as a place for the elders and adults and to develop an initial understanding of the programs and their participants for adult day care for the cognitively-impaired in the U.S.A. The data was collected from 13 Adult Day Care Centers(ADC), and 318 participants from six Adult Day Care Centers from 2001 to 2002 by personal interview and the documents about the participants and their family and caregivers. Participants used ADC program average 8.15 hours In weekdays, 3 days per week. ADC programs provided primarily lunch and snack, transportation, personal care, professional health care, occupational.speech physical therapies, rehabilitation, and respite care. Participants'caregivers were mainly daughters and wives. It is the hope of this study to provide design and care professionals with a first draft of a ″sense-making″template by which they may understand adult day care in a systemic manner and engage in meaningful results as to what this place type could and should be.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.495-502
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• 2009

This paper investigated the effects of dynamic postural control for maintaining upright standing on a support surface during continuous sinusoidal horizontal translation in anterior-posterior direction. 15 healthy young subjects participated in this experiment. The analysis of body movement was analyzed using Ariel Performance Analysis System. Motion pattern was analyzed by seven markers on subject's body. Position of markers were head, chest, hip, right knee, left knee, right ankle and left ankle. Seven different frequencies of support surface were employed ; 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.5 and 2Hz at 2cm of moving path of motionbase. The experiments were performed dynamic postural reponses at the condition of eye open. The results showed that median frequency of the knee, ankle were increased in all frequency bands. Following the frequency of perturbation increased, postural control strategy was changed from ankle strategy to combined strategy. The experiment results could be applied to the dynamic postural training for the elderly and the rehabilitation training for the patients to improving the ability of postural control.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.43-52
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• 2019

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the affecting factors related to cancer screening for persons with disabilities. Methods: We examined the factors affecting cancer screening in individual aged older than 20 years who participated in the 2017 National Survey of the Disabled. The subjects were 6031 individuals with disabilities who were aged older than 20 years. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the chi-square test, and multiple logistic regression with the SPSS Win 21.0 software. Results: Cancer screening among persons with disabilities is differentiated based on age, education level, marital status, type of disability, grade of disability, subjective house economic status, health insurance, chronic disease, unmet healthcare needs, suicidal thinking, and health screening. The significant predictors of health screening were age, marital status, chronic disease, and health screening. Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to develop a program for young, medical care recipients to improve the participations of disabled in cancer screening.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.82-89
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• 2007

The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) is a valid and widely used instrument for the assessment of osteoarthritis patients. In this study, data was obtained from the out-patients with painful osteoarthritis of the knee. One hundred-three out-patients were interviewed by physical therapists. In an exploratory way, a Korean version of the KWOMAC was analyzed for unidimensionality, item separation, and item difficulty using the Winsteps programs. Ninety-five patients with osteoarthritis of the knee over 65 years were analyzed for Rash analysis. In the analysis several functional items poorly fit to the model. These items included "heavy domestic duties" and "standing". In the pain domain, one item ("at night while in bed") did not fit the model. In the stiffness domain one item ("after sitting, lying, or resting later in the day") did not fit the model. Although 4 items from the 3 domains (pain, stiffness, function domain) do not fit well, the KWOMAC domains were confirmed by Rasch analysis. Thus the KWOMAC needs to be further examined before it can be used to properly determine the health status of the elderly with OA.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.155-165
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• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a progressive exercise program based on clinical guidelines for exercise prescription for older adults with osteoarthritis, which was planned to improve the existing arthritis self-help program. Method: We analyzed the contents of the arthritis self-help program and closely reviewed the guideline of exercise prescription for elderly with osteoarthritis. Results: The major contents of the revised arthritis self-help program are as follows: 1) The weekly education is composed of one-hour exercise and one-hour health education about various subjects. 2) The weekly main exercise is composed of muscle strengthening and endurance exercise. 3) Endurance exercise consists of three steps. 4) Muscle strengthening exercise is performed by gravity at first, and then the Thera-Band muscle strengthening exercise is followed on the 4th week. Conclusion: It is necessary to verify the effect of the progressive exercise program for older adults with osteoarthritis. It is thought that this revised program could be adopted as a rehabilitation program for older adults with osteoarthritis.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.37-44
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• 2006

The purposes of this study were to analyze and compare EMG activities of the pectoralis major, biceps brachii, triceps brachii, and brachioradialis muscles during biceps curls using a VRT device and an elastic tubing. Fifteen male college students were recruited as subjects and they performed 10-RM and 20-RM biceps curls. For each load and device condition, the mean and peak normalized EMG levels during different phases of a biceps curl were computed. For each load and phase, paired t-test (p.05) was used to find the significant difference between two devices. ANOVA with repeated measures was also used to find the significant difference among phases in terms of EMG values for each muscle. For each load and device condition, the peak and mean EMG levels during different phases of a biceps curl were computed The significant differences between devices were found in biceps brachii for EA, MD, LD phases, and triceps brachii muscles for all phases, respectively. However, no differences were found among phases for any muscle. This indicated that elastic band could have a similar characteristics of VRT. High antagonistic muscle activity as a function of injury prevention which found particularly in VRT device may suggest that elastic tubing can be a safer training device than VRT. This also imply that elastic tubing could be very effective as a home exercise tool for rehabilitation patients and elderly people.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.122-131
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• 2018

Purpose: This study was conducted to ascertain the effectiveness of forest healing therapy by analyzing researches on forest healing therapy applied to Korean adults and to confirm that forest healing therapy can be used as a therapeutic intervention program for elderly nursing or rehabilitation nursing. Methods: We searched 972 research papers on forest therapy applied to Korean adults. We reviewed appropriate 25 research papers with experimental design among them in the final analysis. Results: Forest healing therapy had physiological and psychosocial effects. First of all, it showed physiological effects to reduce stress index such as heart rate variation. Forest therapy also improved melatonin level in blood of middle-aged women with menopause and increased alpha wave in electroencephalogram and decreased lipid level and superoxide dismutase in blood. Second, forest healing therapy showed psychosocial effects to reduce depression and to improve mental health. But the effects appeared differently depending on the implementing type, period of forest healing therapy, and the professionalism of therapists. Therefore, if forest healing therapy would be applied to nursing, it should be based on its key principle, in other words, its principle of action-interaction-response of forest healing therapy. Conclusion: The results of this study could be used to develop a forest healing program as an intervention of nursing.