• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.195-205
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• 2016

Purpose: This study is to compare the difference in status between elderly individuals with and without a spouse. Methods: The study is based on the Fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(KNHAENS), between 2010 and 2012. Subjects were over the age of 65 years who participated in the survey. Chi-square test and logistic regression of complex sampling design of the KNHAENS and used the survey analysis method by SPSS (version 18). Results: Sleep time of female elders living alone was the shortest which was 2.59 times that of male elders living with a spouse. Stress awareness of female elders living with a spouse was the highest, which was 3.21 times that of male elders living with a spouse. Depression was the highest in female elders living alone, which was 2.26 times that of male elders living with a spouse. Suicidal idea was the strongest in female elders living alone, which was 2.87 times that of male elders living alone. Conclusion: Female elders living alone were weakest in regards to socio-economical aspect with the highest rate of poverty, low educational status, and unemployment. The mental health status of females was worse than that of males. In particular, the mental health status of females living alone was the worst.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.41-48
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• 2010

Numerous researches are being made on applications based on ubiquitous sensor networks and super light, low power sensors. With the development of society, the aged population is expanding and living alone elders are one of important social issues in today's society. This paper implements the living alone elderly people protection system using ubiquitous sensor networks. By collecting and monitoring information on living alone elders using sensor nodes and sink nodes in web environment, we can perform more integrated management. The implemented living alone elderly people protection system can monitor living alone elders' situation and take actions promptly in emergency.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.333-344
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• 2009

Purpose: This study was done to identify differences in health habits, perceived stress, depression, and suicidal thinking by gender for elderly people who are living alone and elderly people who are living with others. Method: The study participants were 4,051 people aged 65 years and over who were surveyed in the Third Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2005. The relationship among outcomes and living arrangement by gender in elders was assessed using multiple logistic regression while controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. Results: Older men living alone were less likely to have breakfast and more likely to perceive stress and think of suicide than older men living with family or others. On the other hand, older women who live alone were less likely to perceive stress than older women who live with others. Age, educational level, income, and number of diseases were significantly associated with each individual outcome. Conclusion: This study showed that living alone has a significant impact on physical health habits and psychological health of elderly people, especially for older men. Therefore, living arrangement should be considered in developing a health promotion program for elders as well as age, gender, education, and income.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.467-475
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• 2007

The nutritional status and chronic disease occurrence of the elderly living in local areas is affected by certain factors, including low energy intakes, low food diversity, poor nutritional quality and living alone. Moreover, elderly people who live alone may have low incomes and be socially isolated. Thus, we have provided them adjustable and balanced menus using standard recipes. In this study, we investigated aspects of nutritional status and living conditions in the elderly status, in relation to food, activities of daily living(ADL), nutrition risk index, average intake of calories and nutrients, the mini dietary assessment index score, depression score, menu satisfaction, menu demand, satisfaction with menu offerings. The result indicated significant nutritional improvements by providing menus to the elders and suggest that by providing adjustable and balanced menus using standard recipes, the nutritional status of isolated elders can be changed and improved.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.727-736
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• 2006

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the degree of attitude toward elders, cognitive level, and mood state by living arrangements of the elderly. Method: The subjects consisted of 238 elderly who divided by living arrangements(living alone, living with spouse, living with children). The data were collected by structured questionnaire that included general characteristics, attitude toward elders, MMSE-K and mood state scale, from March to December, 2005. The collected data were analyzed by Windows SPSS program including descriptive statistics, ${\chi}^2-test$, Fisher's exact test, ANCOVA, $Scheff{\grave{e}}$ test and Pearson Correlation Coefficient. Results: In MMSE-K and mood state, there were statistically significant differences among the three groups. In depression and anxiety factor of mood state, the living alone group showed higher scores than the other two groups. There was a positive correlation between attitude toward elders and MMSE-K in the elderly living with a spouse group and a negative correlation between MMSE-K and mood state in all three groups. Conclusion: It is necessary to develop a supportive program for decreasing the risk of health in the elderly and perform a differential approach according to their living arrangementa. Especially, more concern and intervention are needed to be performed for the elderly living in solitude.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.49-57
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• 2022

Objective: This study aims to conduct a comprehensive review of monitoring systems to monitor and manage physical function of community-dwelling elderly living alone and suggest future directions of unobtrusive monitoring. Design: Literature review Methods: The importance of health-related monitoring has been emphasized due to the aging population and novel corona virus (COVID-19) outbreak.As the population gets old and because of changes in culture, the number of single-person households among the elderly is expected to continue to increase. Elders are staying home longer and their physical function may decline rapidly,which can be a disturbing factorto successful aging.Therefore, systematic elderly management must be considered. Results: Frequently used technologies to monitor elders at home included red, green, blue (RGB) camera, accelerometer, passive infrared (PIR) sensor, wearable devices, and depth camera. Of them all, considering privacy concerns and easy-to-use features for elders, depth camera possibly can be a technology to be adapted at homes to unobtrusively monitor physical function of elderly living alone.The depth camera has been used to evaluate physical functions during rehabilitation and proven its efficiency. Conclusions: Therefore, physical monitoring system that is unobtrusive should be studied and developed in the future to monitor physical function of community-dwelling elderly living alone for the aging population.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2018

In this research, one's ability to perform activities of daily living, body pain, and emotional states of elders who live alone and elders who live with others were compared to investigate which factors affect senior's health state. The data was collected from 88 seniors and analyzed for the comparison. Compared to seniors who live with others, elders who live alone had lower activity of daily livings, stronger body pain, and instability in emotional states. These 3 aspects showed a statistical significance of correlation. As a result of further analysis, not only residential types(living alone or living with others), but also life pattern(indoor or outdoor) is affected on the results. It is expected that the results of this research could be used as basic data for physiological index to evaluate senior's health state and care service for seniors who live alone.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.149-155
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of depression and self-efficacy on health promotion behavior in elders living alone in rural area. Methods: This was a descriptive study. The survey participants were 369 elders living alone in rural area. The period of time for data collection was from June 23 to August 7, 2008. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-test, ANOVA, pearson's correlation coefficient, and stepwise multiple regression. Results: Depression was found to have a statistically negative correlation with health promotion behavior. Self-efficacy was found to have a statistically positive correlation with health promotion behavior. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the most powerful predictor of health promotion behavior was depression. Depression, self-efficacy, number of chronic disease, and economic status accounted for 35.2% of the variance. Conclusion: It is necessary to prepare health promotion programs that can reduce depression level and improve self-efficacy in elders living alone in rural area.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.299-308
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a positive psychology-based and character strengths-integrated activity program for elders living alone in rural areas, and then to examine the effectiveness of the program. Methods: A quasi-experimental pre- and post-test design with a nonequivalent control group was used. The participants included 59 elders in total, of whom 30 were assigned to the experimental group and 29 to the control group. positive psychology-based and character strengths-integrated activity program for elders consists of sixty-minute sessions held twice per week during 6 weeks, hence 12 sessions in total. Results: There were significant differences between the experimental and control groups in depression, vitality and life satisfaction (all p<.001). Conclusion: The positive psychology-based and character strengths-integrated activity program for elders living alone in rural areas is effective in that it decreased the degree of depression and increased the vitality and life satisfaction in the participants.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.78-87
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify factors influencing the quality of life of the elderly living alone and living with their families with regard to their health statuses and health behavior experiences. Methods: We used source data from the 2014 Community Health Survey. The subjects of this study included some elderly people aged 65 and over, and analyzed the data of 13,373 elders living alone and 13,322 elders living with family. Results: Factors influencing the quality of life of the elderly living alone and living with their families include gender, age, education, household income, current occupation, subjective stress level, depression, number of diagnosed diseases, walking exercise, the experience of health screening, and the experience of not having necessary medical services (p<.001). Region was a significant variable influencing the quality of life of the elderly living with their families (p<.001). Conclusion: In order to improve the quality of life of the elderly, it is necessary to provide sound conditions for working, emotional support, walking exercise and promotion of health screening, and to supplement the environment and institution for them to receive necessary medical services.