• 한국노년학
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.467-484
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to explore latent classes of longitudinal medical expenses of older people and to analyze its predictors and its effects on subjective health. Among participants of the Korean Health Panel, the sample of this study includes 1,119 people who is 65-year-old or older and reported their medical expenses for nine consecutive years. The analyses were conducted in three steps. First, Growth Mixture Model (GMM) was applied to find distinct subgroups showing similar patterns in medical expenses. The results showed four groups which were classified as high medical expenditure maintenance group, medical expenditure increase group, low medical expenditure maintenance group, and medical expenditure reduction group. Second, the multinominal logistic regression found that the presence of spouse, economic participation, the number of chronic diseases, and the type of health insurance were significant predictors of latent classes in medical expenses. In particular, the greater the number of chronic diseases, the higher the likelihood of belonging to the high medical expenditure maintenance group. In addition, medical benefit recipients are more likely to belong to the low medical cost maintenance and medical cost reduction groups. Third, multiple regression analysis revealed that the older people in the groups with low or reducing expenses reported better subjective health than people with higher expenses. This study has its meanings in exploring the heterogeneity in longitudinal medical expenses among older people and its predictors and its associations with health outcome. The results of this research provide background information in establishing public health policy for older people.

• 한국노년학
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.517-529
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• 2019

The study was conducted on the impact of employment types middle and old age group of wage earner on life satisfaction and analyzed by dividing it into variables in the employment types and demographic characteristics. Based on the data for the 12th year of the Korea Welfare Panel Study, 1,244 respondents who answered that the main types of economic activities were 'full-time, temporary, daily wage earners' or 'self-help labor, public labor, and elderly empolyment program in public sector.' among 4,341 people over 55 years of age under the age of 75 as of 2017 standard. The survey covered 1,244 people. By age group, 826 people aged 55-64 (middle-age group) and 418 people aged 65-74(old-age group). Middle age group showed that education level, spouse, health condition, beneficiaries of basic livelihood and average monthly income variables were the factors that influence the satisfaction of life. But The type of employment did not significantly affect. Old age group showed that the higher education level, in spouse with-living or spouse death, the better health condition is perceived, the less experience of beneficiaries of basic livelihood, the higher average monthly income, the more satisfied life is. The survey also found that old-aged people who participate in "self-help labor, public labor, and elderly employment program in public sector" are also found to be more satisfied with their lives. According to these results, policy for the old age group should be focused on hunting and expanding of employment program in public sector for the elderly. In order to boost life satisfaction of the elderly, more intensive vocational education and employment training should be provided.

• 한국노년학
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.973-992
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• 2010

The hearing impairment is the representative disorder that affects the quality of the routine life of the aged period. This study was aimed to develop the Korean evaluation scale for hearing handicap(KESHH) with which we can evaluate social and psychological effects of the hearing impairment. Applying this scale clinically, we can analyze the geriatric hearing loss specifically and improve the quality of the aural rehabilitation that can help the hardness of the hearing impairment. Data were collected from 288 participants(176 hearing aid users and 112 non-hearing aid users) and the average age of the participants was 67.4 years old ( 60.15 for the hearing aids users and 78.9 for the non hearing users). The composition ratio of the male and female participants were 58.0% and 42.0% and extrovert and introvert personality were 49.3% and 50.7% showing balanced formation. The tentative draft of KESHH measurements were produced with 30 items and following 5 subscales. Using factor analysis, 6 items were erased and 4 subscales - social effect, psycho/emotional effect, interpersonal effect, and perception of hearing aids - were identified. As each subscale consisted of 6 items, 24 items were corrected and remained totally. Conclusively, the KESHH was developed with 24 items and 4 subscales including 6 items on each subscale. In addition, the KESHH was divided into type-1 and 2 depending on hearing aid users and non hearing aid users. The results of this study can be summarized as the following 5 parts. Firstly, the reliabilities of the KESHH were proved to be high because the subscales' Cronbach alpha values were from 0.723 through 0.895. Secondly, the KESHH showed systematically increasing score as the hearing impairment increased. The lowest score was 24 and the highest score was 117 and the average scores of the hearing impaired and non-hearing impaired are 72.06(SD=15.67) and 66.98(SD=20.94) showing 5.08 increased score for the hearing impaired. Depending on the degree of the hearing loss, the scores recorded 52.63 at the below of the mild hearing loss, 67.29 for the moderate hearing loss, 71.89 for the moderately severe hearing loss, and 75.57 for the severe hearing loss The comparison of the scores by hearing levels indicated that the higher the hearing levels were, the higher the scores of the KESHH with statistical significance(p<0.001). Thirdly, the correlation among 4 subscales was 0.384~0.880(p<0.001). Also, the pure tone average, personality, and the four subscales correlations showed statistical significance with 0.148~0.880 except for the pure tone average and personality and the pure tone average and perception of hearing aids. Fourthly, the total variances explained for the independent subscles were analyzed with multiple regression. The social effect was explained 17.4% with pure tone average, personality, and the status of hearing aid use variances. The psycho/emotional effect was explained 14.4% with puretone average, personality, and age variances. The interpersonal effect was explained 11.2% with pure tone average, personality, and the status of hearing aid use variances. The perception of hearing aids effect was explained 2.2% with only personality. Finally, test-retest reliability was proved to be high with 0.791(p<0.001). Conclusively, the KESHH that was developed considering Korean culture can be a useful instrument for expressing the hearing handicaps of the Korean aged hearing impaired in scores for both hearing aid users and non-users. Also, it is thought that the KESHH is useful clinically for identifying the changes of the hearing handicap scores before and after wearing hearing aids and aural rehabilitation at diverse situations.